Rattlesnakes Galore!!!

Published on August 15, 2026

The August sun was just beginning its slow sink toward the Huachuca Mountains when I stepped into my garage and fired up the Jeep. Leaving the house at around 5:30pm to visit the Coronado National Monument and see if any wildlife was willing to pose for photos. The evening air held that electric promise of a desert monsoon dusk, prime time for slithering life to stir. I hadn’t even cleared the end of the block before I caught a bold, blotched pattern stretching across the pavement: a magnificent, four-and-a-half-foot Sonoran Gopher Snake, lazily soaking up the leftover warmth of the asphalt. A gentle tap on the tail was enough to get him off the dangerous roadway.

​Taking it as a sign of an active night, I turned toward the Coronado National Monument. Just shy of the park border, a heavy-bodied four-foot Black-tailed Rattlesnake crossed the road, its dark tail tucked like a brushstroke against the gravel. Barely three minutes later, a pale, greenish-yellow tinted three-foot Mojave Rattlesnake buzzed a quiet warning from the shoulder, its row of distinct tail bands vivid in the fading light.

​Once inside the park, the road wound deeper into the canyon shadows. There, wedged perfectly into a deep asphalt crevice right in the center of the lane, lay another massive Black-tailed Rattlesnake—a four-foot long gravid female resting in the man-made groove like a ribbon of black, brown and gold. After pointing the snake out to a couple of motorists passing by, I lifted her off the roadway with my snake hook and watched her slither off in to the safety of the scattered-oak woodland.

​Just after leaving the monument and tracking back down the winding access road, the road became a gauntlet of vipers. Two back-to-back Western Diamondbacks, each a solid three feet long, stretched across the road mere yards apart, their classic chevron patterns unmistakable. Further down the road a three-foot Desert Kingsnake was spotted slithering off into the desert grassland. Its glossy black and faded yellow banding gleaming under the glow of my headlights.

​Throughout the three-hour stretch, the desert seemed to leak tiny serpents from every shadow. Scattered across the route were five juvenile Western Diamondbacks and four miniature Mojave Rattlesnakes—all under a foot long, fresh from the season's broods and trying out their tiny, single-button rattles.

​By the time I pulled back into my driveway at around 8:30 PM, the desert night had fully taken over. Fifteen snakes in three hours—a true evening monsoon jackpot! All of the snakes were saved from the dangerous roadways and hopefully continuing to live their best lives.