brown tortoise on brown sand

We were pretty glad we were driving slow on our way home from a camping expedition in the mountains of Santa Barbra. This little guy (maybe only a hand’s width big) was crossing a bridge that ran over a small stream. We pulled over to check him out and give him a headshot. We did learn a while back that you shouldn’t move turtles out of the road because they might get scared and pee and then become dehydrated and die… but that might just be for turtles in the desert of Joshua Tree.