kvandam510's Identifications

@faris thanks for the ID. That makes way more sense. 1 I’d never seen a garter snake that big (about 4’ long) and 2. It was mesmerizing to watch it climb a large live oak with branches touching the ground. I’d seen a gopher snake vertically climb the bark of a valley oak before, but never seen a snake climb outstretches lattices of branches like this whip snake. It was extraordinary.
I added one more pic of it up in the tree. See if you can spot it. Once it was up in the tree more than about 6’ it was completely camouflaged. Poof! Gone.

The snake was approximately 50 cm long. It was sitting motionless in a bare patch on an east-southeast facing slope, probably warming up. The weather was cloudy and the air temperature was 15 deg C. Elevation at the site was 300 meters above sea level. The immediate vegetation community was chaparral, near the interface with an oak woodland. The sighting was just off a trail, near the crest of a ridge line with 60% slopes dropping off on either side.

The snake was approximately 50 cm long. It was sitting motionless in a bare patch on an east-southeast facing slope, probably warming up. The weather was cloudy and the air temperature was 15 deg C. Elevation at the site was 300 meters above sea level. The immediate vegetation community was chaparral, near the interface with an oak woodland. The sighting was just off a trail, near the crest of a ridge line with 60% slopes dropping off on either side.