This was the first snake I saw night driving on New Mexico roads. Before seeing the snake, my sister and I had seen only moths, bunnies, and one horned lizard.

This area is close to the western edge of the distribution of this species. It is not always easy to tell them apart from the Mohave Rattlesnakes that live in the same area. Thanks to Roger Repp for helping me sort out my rattlesnake photos.

This handsome adult was picking up some warmth from the road in the last minutes of daylight.

This one has really flattened out to suck up as much warmth as it could. You can see clearly in this photo that there are no black-and-white bands at the rattle end of the snake. The two most similar-looking snakes in the area, Crotalus atrox and Crotalus scutulatus, both have such bands.