Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I will be visiting the Seattle/Olympic Peninsula area this August for about a week and wondered what herp species I might be able to see and photograph. Anyone have any experience there?

Thanks,
Al Winstel

Hey Al,

I am not sure where you will be going... If you are looking at the Olympic Peninsula, you are probably going to be finding numerous salamander taxa but not much reptile-wise. In the Seattle area, the diversity snake-wise is not great either. Try checking out this site (Washington Herp Atlas):

http://www1.dnr.wa.gov/nhp/refdesk/herp/index.html
Washington Herp Atlas

Thanks. Ironically, a friend of mine in Oregon just found a rubber boa in his yard!
Al

Hey Al,

I definitely think Oregon and Idaho are better for rubber boas than WA. I've only seen one and that was in SE Washington. If you are headed or can head east of the Cascades, let me know and I can point out some places to go. Most of my herping spots are there rather than on the wet side.

Thanks. We will be getting there by train, renting car, and returning from Seattle via plane, so I'm pretty limited as to area. My wife and I are vacationing, so I just have to sneak in the herping. I don't understand it, ever since I threw that nasty wriggling black racer into the car in FL while Sue was sitting in back, she seems down on herps!--true story, the snake was out in traffic and I had no time to properly catch.
Al