Cagary,

Yes, what you found was one of the West Coast's species of Slender Salamanders, Batrachoseps sp. There are quite a few types and many are distinquished by very small diffences, so hopefully the included link will help you narrow down the species by range. I've found Batrachoseps attenuatus in the Big Basin State Park near Santa Cruz...

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Slender Salamanders

Mike,

Thanks so much for the link.

Looks like I found a Batrachoseps major.

its adorable!

Glad to help! The family and I are going camping on the coast next month, and we hope to find a few salamanders while we're there. Last time we uncovered a few Ensatinas, a Slender Salamander and a California Newt...

Mike

someone with ZERO common sense built an addition onto our hillside house by laying flat a 3 ft wide vinyl floor OUTSIDE next to the bottom of the uphill outside wall, then carved out the hill and built a 4 foot high brick wall on the outside edge of that floor and then, for 3 feet farther out, cut out a flat dirt step sitting behind the wall, built a row of big windows on the far edge of that dirt step and put a flat roof on top. we continue to find black slender salamanders dried up INSIDE on the vinyl floor. can anyone guess where they think they are going - there is no water inside the house to attract them but the rain sometimes soaks the dirt behind the brick wall. how deep do they tunnel? min

No,it's a type of newt