I bet what you saw was a Coachwhip. There are no ratsnakes native to California except possibly the Baja Rat which is thought by some to possibly occur in extreme southern California near the border.
Coachwhips are large diurinal snakes fairly common in the desert. They come in variable colors, yellow, tan, black and even pink and red or combinations of those. Often the front half is one color and the back half another but sometimes they are all one color. As juvenilles they have a yellow and brown blotched pattern similar to a gophersnake. The juvenille pattern fades into the adult coloration as they mature and sometimes blotching remains in the neck region.

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