(dramatic music)
- Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the vlog.
We're at Moab an amazing place in Utah
and it's gonna be a scorcher later on.
So I'm actually in this cave right now,
looking for some snakes.
In the morning hours,
right after the sun comes up,
oftentimes this is the time you find snakes.
We could find some King snakes, some Gopher snakes,
in this area, and there's actually a small species
of Western Rattlesnake that come from this area.
It's gonna be a scorcher later, a 105 plus degrees.
So once that sun comes up and really gets hot,
snakes aren't gonna be out,
but there are some lizard species here too,
in particular the Whiptail, the Spiny-tail,
and my personal favorite, the Western Collared Lizard.
So we're just gonna look around for some snakes now,
look for some lizards later,
just have an amazing day trying to see some cool reptiles.
(dramatic music)
It's getting around to midday right now, we're at Slickrock.
You can obviously see the topography kinda changes,
much more smooth.
Not really great for rattlesnakes and stuff like that,
but just wanted come out
and see this place and see how amazing it is.
Now we may find some lizards out here
because as the sun is coming up and heating up,
lizards will oftentimes come out on the rocks
but even if we don't find anything it's about the journey,
and look at how absolutely gorgeous it is.
Certainly up here we're really not gonna find much,
but when I get into a little crevice like this
the thing that's nice is
that it's starting to heat up today.
Definitely the midday, it's getting warm.
But here we've got a lot of kind of foliage,
and we've got areas where snakes
and other reptiles can still hide,
so I'm just gonna have a poke around here
and see if we can find anything.
As the heat of the day is climbing these type
of opportunities right here, these dens,
are really where a lot of the rattlesnakes
and other snakes are gonna go hide.
Where the lizards come out to bask,
these guys are going to get down in here.
So just taking a look in here,
don't see anything yet, but hey you know
it's not always about catching things
it's just being out in nature and enjoying the process.
It's like fishing, right?
Some days you go out fishing you don't catch anything,
but it's still amazing so.
But just keep on looking hopefully we'll get lucky,
but even if we don't it's gonna be an amazing adventure.
(dramatic music)
We found our first reptile guys.
This is a Spiny-tail right here.
You see him Radha?
He's gonna go up in that crevice in a second.
Look at him.
(heavy breathing)
What a beauty that guy is.
Oh no, I messed up!
These guys are so fast, but that's awesome.
Found our first reptile.
Again, you're gonna see like Northern Whiptail,
Spiny-tails and then I'm hoping I can see some
Western Collared Lizards here.
Oh my God that's awesome, we saw a reptile!
How cool is that?
Look at over here, look at over here guys.
That's another Spiny-tail.
Let's go ahead get close.
You gotta sneak up on these guys super quick
'cause you could see how fast he is.
Oh he's up on that rock.
Alright, I'm just gonna really get as close I can,
quietly just kind of sneak up on him.
Let's go ahead get as close as we can.
Slowly getting close, alright here we go.
Alright, oh he got away.
These guys are just too fast for us.
Guys I was so close to catching that lizard.
Again, I don't really want to stress him out
and and grab him and hurt him or anything.
I just want to see him and then let him back on his way.
This is place it's just teeming with life of course.
You've got the sun out here
that is really starting to pick up.
In the last half hour it's gone up a good 10, 15 degrees.
That Desert Sun is on us,
but you get into an area like this
and it's just probably 15,
20 degrees cooler so it's gonna be teeming with life.
With all the animals that are out in
the sun sunning this up then coming here
to hide from the sun.
Look at this cave system here.
Look at how far back it goes.
Guarantee you if I could get back in there,
there's some stuff getting away from the heat of the sun.
What an incredible thing here and I tell you what guys,
I don't get out in nature nearly enough because I'm so busy,
but when I am I feel like I'm in my element.
This is just so absolutely amazing.
We haven't even reached heat of the day yet,
we're getting there.
It's over a 105 degrees outside on the ground
and back here in the cool, look at this 74 degrees.
That gives you an idea,
30 degrees cooler in the shade where these caverns are.
It's really amazing to be out here.
(dramatic music)
Finally caught our first little reptile here at Moab.
I have this little Spiny-tail.
What a cute little dude.
I tell ya these guys are fast, they're agile,
it gave me a little bit of a run for my money,
I'll be honest with you.
But even something just as little and cute as this
it's still just such an accomplishment, feels so awesome.
It's been a while since I've caught a lizard out in
the wild so I'm excited,
but I'm gonna go ahead just let this guy back
go exactly where found him
and then keep on looking for other stuff.
So I actually found that lizard right under this rock
and that's where I put him right back.
One of the things that's
kind of a code when you're out there
herping for reptiles or animals or anything,
even fishing for that matter.
Yeah it doesn't make any sense.
(laughs)
- [Camera Man] How do you get the water
that you pick up put back where you started?
- I actually found that little dude right under this rock
and that's where I put him.
There's kind of a code when you're heading out herping,
searching for animals is wherever you find something
whether it's a stump, a rock,
a piece of wood, whatever it happens to be,
always put it right back where you found it.
Again these animals know their area
and when you kinda jumble their area up,
it can actually mess them up pretty good.
So when you flip a rock,
put that rock exactly where you found it.
Lori's gonna give a go at trying to this lizard.
She's pretty stealthy, look at her moves.
She's done this a lot, yeah.
Every time she walks,
the lizard gets a little further away
and there it goes the lizard's gone.
The thing that's amazing here at Slickrock is
that the fact that the rocks are so absolutely smooth.
Once upon a time,
there was actually water that was molding these rocks,
which I find absolutely incredible.
But I tell ya, every 10 minutes that goes by,
the temperature keeps going up.
It's getting warmer and warmer in here.
Now, it's good for the lizards to come out,
all the snakes have certainly went away
and cooled off for the day.
Our next chance to potentially see some snakes out here
will certainly be at dusk.
Take a little break from the hiking
and we stopped at this rock shop fossil place.
I love rocks and I actually love fossils.
As a matter of fact, if any luck,
later today we're gonna go see some dinosaur tracks.
I am so stoked on that, I hope it happens.
So regardless, let's just look and see what we find here.
Some really cool stuff, look at this stuff.
Lori loved rocks too.
She's always collecting rocks.
- Am I?
- [Brian] You are.
- Am I? You are.
(laughs)
They're cool right?
- Yeah, oh yeah, see there ya go.
- [Brian] Those geodes?
- Yep. - [Brian] Look at Lori,
fool's gold.
Remember this?
I used to love this.
- As a kid yeah.
- When I was a kid.
When I was a kid, this was like my favorite thing ever.
Could you imagine finding that?
That would be insane. - You only get
the little one with the flakes.
- [Brian] Yeah, yeah isn't that awesome?
- Oh yeah, that is a treat, awesome.
- [Brian] That's cool.
I told you, I'm in heaven with this.
You know if I wasn't going to be a animal guy,
I really wanted to be a paleontologist.
That was the thing when I was a kid.
I was really into paleontology,
so seeing all these fossils and all these amazing finds.
There's bones, there's all kinds of stuff.
I mean this, I love it.
I mean it's a nice break from
the heat and see a bunch of cool stuff.
Alright guys, I'm pretty excited.
We are gonna go ahead and cut a clutch
of dinosaur eggs today.
We had to stop up on the way to see
there's some dinosaur tracks
for these petroglyphs right here.
I mean how awesome is that?
There's stuff over here, there's little people.
I'm not exactly sure what that is, maybe that's a snake,
I'm not exactly sure but that is pretty incredible.
Not a 100% sure how old these are,
but still just think about this,
probably thousands of years ago
this was actually done and here we are standing
on the side of a road checking it out.
I mean, things like this I realize
this isn't a a reptile or animal related vlog,
but it's a cool travel vlog
that I'm absolutely enjoying.
I wanna know if you guys are enjoying this.
You know, go down in the comments below,
let me know if you love this type of stuff
but it's a blast to me.
I don't know about you guys,
but I've been watching ancient aliens on History Channel
and that ancient alien theorist
would say that that's an alien.
That's an alien there.
Lori, what do you think?
Is it cool or what?
- It's crazy, yeah.
It's crazy to think I wonder how old it really is.
- [Brian] I know.
Again, I love this type of stuff,
it's so awesome.
Dude Jay.
- What up dude?
- Dude, look at this man.
That guy right there
- [Jay] Dude, it's me! that's you.
That is a hundred percent you.
- [Jay] Look, he's got a camera.
- [Brian] Got a camera, big feet.
- [Jay] Big, old feet.
I look like a triangle.
- Yeah you look like a, wow, that's awesome.
- Isn't it cool?
These are my people.
- We're definitely at the heat of the day.
Now they're spots that we've shot
that have been 150 plus degrees.
Actual air temperatures probably I don't know 105
and we're hiking about one, 2.2 miles,
because my love of reptile started
with a love of dinosaurs and we're going to see Dino tracks.
I've never seen Dino tracks before,
so this is one of the coolest things I've ever done.
Take a look at this.
Wow guys this is crazy.
Look at this, those are dinosaur tracks!
I mean, what in the world?
I have never in my life thought
that I would be this close to dinosaur tracks.
I mean think about that.
Hundreds of millions of years ago,
a dinosaur was right here, right where we're standing.
Wow, I tell you what, it's worth every ounce
of energy it takes to get to these places
because this is absolutely insane, oh my God.
Not exactly sure what dinosaur it was,
but who cares I mean a fricking dinosaur
was standing right here, oh my God.
It's one of the coolest things
I've ever seen in my entire life
(dramatic music)
You know this trip is much about trying to catch snakes
and reptiles was really just about enjoying nature.
We're actually in Arches National Park,
you can see an arch way off in the distance.
This place is unbelievable,
take a look at this, oh my gosh.
Again, in the heat of the day,
you're really not gonna catch much
so this was all about just doing some hikes.
Lori actually stayed back in town with a friend,
so they're doing some kind
of touristy souvenir shopping, whatever.
Me and Jay over here,
we're just hiking up here in Arches,
just enjoying this absolutely amazing day.
That's the thing guys, I'm always encouraging you,
get out there and love life, love the adventure.
I mean look at this place, wow it's surreal.
To me, this is what life is about.
You know, you work hard,
but at the same time just breathe in the moment,
live in the moment and just absolutely adore
the beauty around you.
Oh what a day,
hopefully we'll find some more reptiles later
when the sun starts going down,
but as for now just hiking and enjoying this beautiful park.
Arches National Park is one
of the most beautiful places I've ever been
on the entire planet.
It was a pretty brutal hike,
a good mile and a half uphill a lot of the way
to get to Delicate Arch but this
is an absolutely beautiful sight.
Sitting on the edge of about a thousand foot drop just kinda
admiring this unbelievable work of Mother Nature.
Wow, this place is absolutely incredible.
(laughs) Oh my gosh,
I am having the time of my life.
Look at this, oh my gosh.
Oh, this is just, it's unbelievable people, oh my gosh.
It's like a little private oasis out of the sun, beautiful.
Literally, top five coolest places
I've ever been in my life, wow.
And here it is guys the Sand Dune Arch.
Oh my gosh.
(laughs)
This is awesome.
Just climbing through this arch
and I saw this amazing beautiful Agama down there.
It's the biggest lizard we've seen all day.
Haven't really seen a whole lot of variety.
Really wanted to see Collared Lizards,
but this is a beauty so I'm gonna do the best I can do
to go ahead and sneak up on it.
Oh my God, this thing is amazing.
Just gotta be really slow and methodical.
He's such a smart lizard.
Literally as I'm crawling towards him,
he's just just pulling away a little by little.
Gonna try to get a little bit closer.
Maybe I'll be able to get him.
Oh wait a second, he just got a bug, he just got a bug.
Alright, this is my time, this my time let's go.
Oh gosh, this thing's so smart.
Got into the rocks oh well.
What an end to an absolutely amazing day
and what a view behind me.
We're here to just spend the time here
and see the amazing sunset, what a day.
And listen, I know it was a little disappointing
that we didn't catch more reptiles.
I mean we did catch one lizard.
We saw some other lizards no snakes, but you know what?
It's like they say,
the worst day of herping is still better than
the best day in the office right?
Actually, Jay always says he's an experienced collector.
So this was an experience I'm happy we collected,
it was amazing.
Let me know in the comments if you liked it
and if you wanna see more content like this in the future.
You know listen, it was still an amazing adventure
and I hope that you enjoyed it
and I hope that you have an amazing day.
Tomorrow we head back to Detroit
and back to the Reptarium at BHB.
I love you guys so much.
Be kind to someone and I promise,
I'll see you guys tomorrow.
(dramatic music)