D.A. Good 1982 Journal : Camp Creek Campground to Bean Creek, Bitterroot Nat'l Forest, Montana (cont?) Into the Bitterroot Valley and on the upper slopes. There is a fairly dense understory of hardwoods: Red maple, viburnum(?), thimbleberry, etc. The Douglas fir forest is quite thick but the Ponderosa pine woods to the east (and lower) is more open with many open "meadows" in which are many fallen logs. (ca. 1100) On arrival we walked west beyond the end of the road along Bean Creek to look for Cenchrus habitat. However, we walked about a mile and found nothing but closed Douglas fir forest with no indication of any openings farther up. We then returned to the car and drove east again stopping at various places to roll logs. We found nothing but ants. We then turned around again and returned to the campground about mid afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon fishing in Bean Creek (caught 2 trout). I had hoped that the change in vegetation would yield alligator lizards because the areas to the south (supposedly outside of their range) had a different dominant vegetation type, at least as far as I saw. However, none were found. This was not unexpected since we are on the edge of the range. As long as we get a population somewhere in Montana, I will be satisfied. Two Thamnophis were collected: one a juvenile caught near a steep slope in the dense Douglas fir forest which might be a T. elegans (804) and the other is an adult ♂ T. sirtalis caught near camp by Meg (DA6 505).