Best Identifier Click photo to enlarge Cream-colored to yellowish brown with dark brown, black, or reddish brown blotches along top and sides of body. All areas around southern Nevada. Not venomous, but they can bite. Lack of triangular head. No rattle on tail.
Many hikers mistake gopher snakes for rattlesnakes.
They are harmless. Look at the skin circled in yellow in the enlarged photo. Their markings closely resemble a rattlesnake. Gopher snakes might mimic rattlesnake behavior - coiling, vibrating their tail and striking from a coiled positions.