Found myself a snake

I went hiking/herping the other day and was pretty much just flipping stuff over. My goal is to find another alligator lizard, preferably an adult.

While walking, I came across this board which is what any herper hopes for:



I flipped it to find this:



I think it's a gopher snake and it tried to escape by crawling into a hole. I was surprised at how strong it was because I was trying forcefully to pull it back out. I eventually succeeded and before releasing it, I took some pics:

Wow that beautiful! Would seriously love it if we could find stuff like that round here! I'd be out all the tine looking for stuff

maybe a rat snake?? :S