She wasn’t as big as she may appear in this photo, 6 inches, maybe 8 inches long. It would have been easy to miss her, except for her unexpected and striking colors. In all of my miles of hiking, I’ve never seen a lizard with these markings in Southern California before. Their camouflage is usually matched to the intense dryness that surrounds them. Unless you startle them, you barely notice they’re there.

That was not the case for this lovely creature. Surrounded by beautiful orange poppies and fields of yellow flowering fiddlenecks, perhaps this was her camouflage. She was startlingly beautiful, regardless. And I think she knew it. She practically posed for this photo. 🙂

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