Thanks for the county correction Joyce , I knew I should have checked and not guessed . I had fun searching for wildlife on the mountain , but did not see any Tarantulas which would have been neat . It would have been great to see you bug-hunting ! My family thinks that my new found interest is weird , but they helped me search and I know they enjoyed it . Anyhow , I guess this is some kind of tough Hopper to be out on the trail in the wind and heat ... do you know how common they are and what type ? Thanks for the help , Beth

I've never seen this species before, but Andy Hamilton will know what it is. He'll comment on it soon -- I'm curious to know what he says.

About the tarantulas -- last week at Mt Diablo I saw about 5 on the road down from the summit as it was getting dark. Yesterday, same road and same time of day, I saw none. I was thinking it was too cold for them yesterday (it was quite a bit colder than last week) but I don't know too much about tarantulas. It's definitely the right time of year for the males to be out wandering.

That's great that your family helps you find bugs even if they think it's weird. They'll probably get more interested the more they learn -- it's addictive. And the more eyes, the better.

I think these are something related to Scolops, probably the same family anyway. Nice images, too!