This is a child's slide in a playground. Pleasant enough to give the little dears nightmares for a week. I haven't ever seen a Gila monster outside of a zoo or botanical garden, they are relatively rare and very shy. They are poisonous but they have to bite and chew for a while before the poison works its way out of the glands in their mouths. They aren't really monsters, just fat old lizards. They are really the product of bad packaging, bad name branding and terrible public relations.
I saw a couple of Gila monsters near the Peralta Canyon Trail in the Superstitions one spring. They are very shy creatures, and didn't even like me trying to take their pictures with a telephoto lens (I would never approach one or try to touch it). This is a gorgeous photo -- my prospects disappeared under some scrub. I did not pursue . . .
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