Kim, Scott, and I set out in the Rincons to find some reptiles. We sure weren't disappointed, especially when we came across this fellow: a two-year-old desert tortoise! I'd never seen one in the wild before, and the others hadn't seen very many of them either.

The mountains were oddly green due to the large amount of monsoon rains we've received already.

Seeing one desert tortoise is a pretty amazing thing...but two in one hike? Wow.

Our dinner spot would be a small dam up the little stream. The view was nice, even before we reached the dam.

And on the way, boom! Another tortoise!

Dinner at the dam with Kim and Scott. :D

We started back down the trail shortly after the sun set...and look what we found! I saw him out of the corner of my eye and froze, barely keeping myself from jumping back and/or wetting my pants. I'd never seen a rattlesnake in the wild, let alone a diamondback!

And then Kim almost stepped on another one a short time later. He had been curled up right in the middle of the trail. o.O Scary.

We never would've seen this tiger rattlesnake if he hadn't rattled at us. He was a good distance from the trail (way out of striking range), but he apparently didn't like us even that close, as he continued to rattle at us as we took pictures.

And oh, look! We found another diamondback! This one was making his way along the edge of the trail as we approached. All three diamondbacks scurried away after we'd taken several pictures without once rattling at us.

A little later, and we came across two tarantulas duking it out. Again, I'd never seen one of these guys in the wild. We guessed this one was defending his burrow...

...against this guy, who was significantly bigger than the first, though he ended up running off (probably due to the giant mammals standing over him).