Santa Cruz Mountains
Lenny Buttitta and I checked out several localities, but had the most luck in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Lenny makes the final adjustments on our bikes.

Pacific Chorus Frogs were sometimes seen under objects that retained moisture.

This Black Salamander is the first one I've ever seen. These salamanders have teeth in their upper jaw which project beyond their lip and can be felt by lightly stroking the amphibian's snout.

How about one more pic?

This Pacific Gopher Snake was in a rodent nest and had just consumed a large meal, we decided to leave it alone to digest its dinner.

We found two other Gopher Snakes nearby the first.

The other Gopher Snake patiently waited in my backpack to get its photo taken.

This was the last snake we found on that day.

I admired our finds before releasing them back into the wild.

Not all Western Toads are as colorful as this example.