GILA MONSTER

[Jim Hatt]

On Jun 2, 2009 I was hiking down the old dirt road that leads to Tortilla Ranch from the Apache Trail. About 1 mile from the Apache Trail I came across something in the middle of the road that I hadn’t seen but just a few times in the 20 years I have been in Arizona.
A Gila Monster!

When I first saw it, I didn’t think I would have time to get my camera out of my backpack, and get a photo of it before it scurried off into the bushes. I stopped about 10 feet from it and stood perfectly still for about 30 seconds. He didn’t move. Very slowly I unbuckled my backpack and lowered it to the ground. Unzipped a side pocket and got my camera out. I got my photo and he still seemed to be unaware of my presence.

I took a couple of steps closer and got another photo, another step closer and a third photo. I switched my camera to preview mode to make sure the photos were there, which they were, and quickly switched back to photo mode. When I looked back towards him, he was gone.

I looked off to the side of the road and I could see the grass moving. That had to be him. I switched my camera to movie mode this time, and set out to follow him and get some video of him in motion. I followed the moving grass (not getting too close) until I saw him climb up onto a small ridge and out in the open where I could get some good video of him.

The three photos and short video are below.











Click on this link to see a video
http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc73 ... Mvideo.flv

[Tyroler]

You're always hicking?Never by Horse?

[Jim Hatt]

Tyroler,

I rarely take my horses in there during the hot weather.
They require too much water, and it can be very hard to find out there.

Jim

[GeorgeW]

I ran across a monster in a drainage East of the Peralta TH. A week later my brother came up and I took him to the same drainage and we saw a monster. When I compared the photos it was easy to see it was two separate specimens. I'll try to link the videos here.

First monster.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video. ... 1684322773

Second monster.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video. ... 3552409474

These are the only two I've seen in the wild. It was cool seeing them.

Moderator note: I do not know how to get FACEBOOK videos to play here George. (Or even if they will)
I upload my videos to my to PHOTOBUCKET account same as photos.

One of the problems appears to be that you have to be logged into Facebook to watch videos posted there, and I do not even have a Facebook account. If I copy and paste the URL into my browser window, it takes me to the Facebook login page.

Jim

[hikin_jim]

Can't quite see the movie George. Looks like you're trying to embed it in your post. What if, instead of embedding it, you linked to it? Or maybe Jim can figure out a way to get the embedding to work.

HJ

[Guz]

Yep. And you might as well get on facebook, Jim.