After a morning shoot along the Salt River photographing otters and wild horses, I came home to a pretty unusual visitor in our backyard – a Gila monster.

Gila monsters are one of the most iconic reptiles of the Southwest, but actually seeing one in the wild is surprisingly rare. They spend most of their lives underground in burrows and are only active during certain times of the year, mainly in spring and early summer. Even people who have lived in the desert for many years may never see one.

They’re easy to recognize once you do. Their bodies are covered in bead-like scales with a striking black and orange (sometimes pinkish) pattern, and they usually grow to about 18–22 inches (roughly 45-56 cm) long.

Gila monsters are also venomous, which often surprises people. Their venom works very differently from that of a rattlesnake. While rattlesnakes inject venom through hollow fangs in a quick strike, a Gila monster delivers venom through grooves in its teeth while biting and chewing. It’s a much slower and more defensive mechanism, and bites are extremely rare unless the animal is handled or provoked.

Our visitor spent about an hour wandering through the yard before eventually climbing the steep rock wall behind the house and disappearing back into the desert.

It was a special surprise and a nice reminder that even close to home, wildlife is never very far away here in the Sonoran Desert.

I managed to take a few photos while it was exploring the yard, which I’m sharing below.