Western terrestrial garter snake (Thamnophis elegans) on a rock. Photographed at Carrville Pond in Trinity County California, USA.

---

These western terrestrial garter snakes were all over the place while my son was fishing at Carrville Pond in Trinity County California on this summer day. The pond is surrounded by old dredger tailings and all that warm rock is certainly a draw for reptiles. Fortunately, all we encountered were these docile critters and some lizards and NOT any of the triangle head rattly tailed snakes which are certainly around as well.

---

Size: 3640px × 2427px
Location: Trinity County California, USA
Photo credit: © Mike Lee / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: animal, aquatic, basking, beautiful, brown, california, close, color, colorful, colourful, conservation, copy, county, docile, elegans, eye, eyes, garter, gold, golden, herpetology, horizontal, image, mountain, movement, northern, outdoors, people, photography, predator, pretty, reptile, reptilian, scale, sinuous, slither, snake, space, species, stare, striped, terrestrial, thamnophis, tongue, trinity, usa, vibrant, western, wildlife, yellow