...in eastern Sacramento and western El Dorado Counties, to the point where I can call a male snake on sight. Males can be dark but females never seem to be light unless they are a bonafide hypo. It gets more pronounced with age, as well. I really wish some grad student would do something with these guys and figure out what is really going on before the whole area gets turned into tract homes or a strip mall.
To anybody who is really into locality NorCal getula, either buy some from Merker or go catch your own and take as many as you want. They are by far the most abundant snake in this habitat and I've caught as many as 75 animals a year in these areas, often different snakes in the same spots for three or four years in a row. They're easy to road-hunt for in the summer and early fall and there's no way you or I could put a dent in the local population by collecting them (unless you have a crowbar or don't know how to put a board back the way you found it).
I live in Texas now and might never catch another Cal King, so have no hesitation about saying that Cal DF&G are a bunch of dumb-asses who have no interest in protecting native reptiles from the bulldozer. In fact, if I was still breeding Cal Kings, I'd drive home and catch as many nice ones as I could. My oldest wild-caught king turned 10 this summer and has never looked better. Better to be cared for in a cage with decent food, no parasites, and a comfortable life than survive ten years of drought, predators, a diet of skinny lizards, and then get buried alive one day so that you an I can have a Blockbuster 5 minutes closer.
