June 1 Paradise Valley to Road's End, Kings Canyon NP, Fresno Co., CA I hiked from Upper Paradise valley back to Road's End today. Saw two rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis, I think), one on the path near Mist Falls and the other below Thirst Falls at the trail junction. The first rattled and went away while the second took no notice of me and continued on. The weather today was much warmer, in the 70s, and very sunny. At night I drive to Sequoia NP and will head to Silliman Gap tomorrow to look for salamanders. June 12 Silliman Crest/Twin Peaks, Sequoia National Park, Fresno Co., CA Today I hiked from Lodgepole up to Twin Peaks and the Silliman Crest, near Mt. Silliman. I looked for a reported population of H. platyphalus on the Twin Peaks during the day for about an hour but didn't find any. The habitat there looked great, except that there wasn't much water flowing. Meant to go back at night but didn't make it. Instead I searched for salamanders on the east side of the Silliman Crest and found one adult just as it was getting dark; I searched for another hour and a half but didn't see any more. There is very little snow cover in this part of Sequoia, probably because it's a drought year, and I expect that this limits the salamander habitat since they rely on snowmelt. The weather was sunny, breezy and in the upper 60s to mid 70s during the day, and the night was quite mild.