Posting by CobraCaroline

There are lots of gophers on the golf courses in northern Nevada, and I’m not talking about the little brown furry rodents that Carl Spackler went to war with in the movie Caddyshack.  Nope, the gophers I’m talking about are long and scaly.  I’m talking Gopher Snakes!

Whenever I visit my Dad at his home in Sparks NV, I  spend time in the surrounding desert searching for snakes and lizards.  The Great Basin desert is a harsh area characterized by very little rain fall, cold winters and hot summers, and it is mostly rocky and covered in sage brush.  Although many people associate deserts with snakes, I usually don’t find very many snakes or lizards besides western fence lizards.  In fact, I am able to find more reptiles in northern Virginia than in northern Nevada.

So, I was talking with my Dad and some of his golfing buddies and they started telling me about the snakes they see on the golf course.  They described seeing many gopher snakes sunning on the greens and in the rough.  My Dad offered to take me snake hunting on the golf course he is a member of -- I was excited!

The weather in Sparks can be unpredictable -- to say the least.  In June, it can be 90 one day and then snow the next day!  The day we set off on our golf course snake safari it was about 80 -- but the wind was blowing down from the snowy Sierras at about 30 miles per hour.  I wasn’t sure if the snakes would be out in wind like that.

Snow on Mt Rose, NV in June

Dad received permission from the course manager to take me on a “tour” of the course.  We got on our golf cart and began our adventure!

The views are spectacular in Nevada -- you can see forever.  It was so nice just to be out enjoying our day.  Dad was careful to not to get in any of the golfers’ way and he knew right where the snakes were most likely to be.

Dad was also careful not to hit any fence lizards that were on the cart path.  (Fore! little lizards)

Then we totally lucked out!  Not only did we find a beautiful gopher snake, we found him eating a vole!  (Voles are little furry mammals that Carl Spackler would not approve of.)

What an awesome day.  And the best part was how appreciative Dad and his friends were of the snakes.  They respected and protected the snakes  from other less herpetologically informed golfers.  Thank you guys!

Truckee Meadows/Reno Area - Nevada

Posting by Caroline Seitz

Even though I live and work in the Washington DC area, I consider my other home to be in Reno NV.  I love the desert, the Sierra Nevadas, the Jeffery pine trees, the open views, the awesome weather, and my Dad – who happens to live there too.  I am so lucky because I get to go out to Reno a couple of times a year to visit Dad and have tons of fun.

This visit was, as usual, a total blast!  We visited the old cemetery in Virginia City.  I took a ton of pictures, and I did not find any ghosts, but I did find a couple of nice Western Fence Lizards hanging around the old graves.

Western Fence Lizard on an old grave marker

In the Nevada desert, the air is so dry that lumber does not rot for a very long time.  So, even after 100 years, the old wooden bed frames that people used to mark graves in the past were still there.  Nevada is the driest state in the country – the humidity level can be around 5%. Here in Virginia, we can have humidity levels of 70% or more – the difference is remarkable when you are in the desert.

But Nevada is not all about the desert.  In addition to being the driest state, Nevada is also the most mountainous state.  The highest mountains in the lower 48 states are the Sierra Nevadas, which lie on the California/Nevada border.  The Sierras are home to many rivers that on the east coast we might call creeks because they seem so small.  Most of the rivers on the eastern side of the Sierras never make it to the ocean – they simply “die” out in the Great Basin.  The Truckee River runs from Lake Tahoe east to Pyramid Lake, where the water simply evaporates into the dry desert air.

Different fish species live in the rivers and lakes.  Our luck trying to catch them, however, was not the greatest.  No grilled trout for breakfast on this trip!

Dad catches a big one!

Since we were unsuccessful in our efforts to catch fish, we decided to go out for some  sushi that night.  We went to Oceania at the Peppermill – WOW – what a place!  Sharks, leatherback sea turtles – they had it all.

Lookout!

Leatherback Sea Turtle in Nevada?

It was a great trip – thanks Dad!