Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Some friends and I are going down to Pheonix this weekend to see spring training, and the idea came up to go do some field herping in the mornings before games and the evenings afterwards. We're staying just outside of Scotsdale, and so anywhere we go needs to be within an hour drive of there, for practicality's sake.

Does anyone know any good field herping areas near Pheonix? The big thing we'd like to see are kingsnakes, but we're interested in seeing reptiles in general. Worst comes to worst, some nice walks out in the desert would be pretty fun, too.

Get on I-10 and drive east about 450 miles until you reach the Hueco Mountains of west Texas, where you will actually be in the range of the species. If you really want to have any sort of real chance of catching one before May, you will have to drive another 300 miles further east as well.

If on the other hand, you just mean kingsnakes in general, you can find cal kings in the irrigated farmland around Phoenix. They are probably easiest to find road hunting at night, particularly on a warm rainy night (a rare thing at this time of year). Roads that run along irrigation ditches can be the more productive for kingsnakes.
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Chris Harrison