what kind of snake is this?

[marc olivares]

hey gang,

bumped into this little guy in escalante a couple weeks ago and cant find a match on google. any ideas what kind of snake it is.

it was not happy to be stuck in the pot hole it was in...
one person in my group said coral, but it lacked the red rings so i'm thinking something else.

[donny h]

I'm no expert, but it looks like a classic California kingsnake to me.

I googled it, they are found in Utah, while supposedly the western coral snake is not.

Corals have bands of red, yellow, and black, so the old saying is
"red touches yellow can kill a fellow".

[DickHead]

I'm no expert either, but I know a coral snake when I see one. That ain't no coral snake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_snake
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8a/Coral_snake.jpg/800px-Coral_snake.jpg

Your snake ain't got no red on it.
I'm also not so sure that Utah is in the Coral snakes range. Maybe extreme southern Utah...

[Iceaxe]

I'm putting my money on......

California King Snake
(Lampropeltis getulus californiae)

Range:
Eastern and southwestern Oregon, California, southwestern Nevada, southern Utah and western Arizona and into Baja, Mexico.

http://www.petalumawetlandspark.org/Pictures/KingSnake.jpg