Arent there scorpions , rattlesnakes , and the like in Flagstaff , Santa Fe?

Most snakes want nothing to do with you. You've probably stepped within inches of venomous snakes and not even noticed.

I woke up to a scorpion crawling on my tent once. Not a big guy. Wasn't mean or anything, I flicked him off.

Mountain lions, that's different.

Probably depending on the elevation. Those are all over Colorado as well under about 8000’ elevation. Generally won’t mess with you unless you mess with them. One guy got killed by one by Table Mountain in Golden a few years back.

Also, scorpions and spiders are often nowhere near as deadly as snakes, at least in north America. I'll take a brown recluse/black widow bite over a copperhead or cottonmouth bite any day.

of course there are. There's also cactuses, empty deserts, tumbleweed, Indians, cowboys, Mexicans, saloons, gold, rocks everywhere, and the wind makes that lonely howling sound like in the movies.

In AZ it is second nature for folks to check their shoes for scorpions before putting them on.

Yes, we have rattlesnakes out in the west. I hate snakes. I think I can count on both hands the number of times I have seen a rattlesnake in the wild since I moved out to CO in 1997. As someone else noted, if you run on a trail you have likely passed right by them untold times without every knowing (which just sent a chill up my spine).

I got bitten by a scorpion once

It was almost as painful as a bee sting!

If I were a real man...

I would have shot it.

(After I had finished crying and getting treated at the ER).

Two friends stepped on cotton mouths while walking around in flip flops at night, bit on their lower legs :)

Also, there's venomous snakes in most of the US. I think Hawaii and Alaska and maybe like Maine don't have any? All of the south/southeast has cottonmouths, copperheads, and various forms of rattle snakes. Timber rattlers in the northeast. Then the little cute coral snakes!

Two pheasant hunters were in a field in eastern Colorado when one was bitten by a rattlesnake in his crotch. Immediately one called 911 and said “Help, my friend was just bitten by a rattlesnake. We are miles from our car and 50 miles from a hospital. Is there anything we can do?” The operator says “You can attempt to suck out the venom and spit it out”. The Hunter who was bitten says “What did they say?”. His friend replies, “There’s nothing I can do, you’re probably going to die”.

Hey Joe, meet me at S. Table Mtn, I'll race up and down the segment Don't step on Snek!

You don't seem like the friendliest bloke out there. You drive one of those huge (black or white generally) pickups with a monster grille?

I see a couple rattlers every year. I rode over a rattler last summer on my bike over at Waterton. Jumped over more than my fair share on runs over the years all along the front range from Trinidad to the Wyoming line. The most memorable was one summer I hosted some of my ex’s friends from the East Coast. People who had never been out west. I took them on a hike up a narrow slot canyon. To get there involved a river crossing during runoff. I was the only one with decent river gear, so I carried three people across the river in fairly fast moving current up to my rib cage. Hiked in a ways before getting turned back by a thunderstorm. Double timing it back down the canyon we came across a rattler. It went parallel to us for about twenty yards, rattling the whole way. The east coasters were traumatized. I ferried them back across the river. Needless to say, we broke up a short time later.

yup, there are rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, and mountain lions in Flagstaff, but in the 4 years I went to school there hiking a bunch of trails and I never saw one.

I did see a coyote scavenging for food in a dumpster behind a Taco Bell once. Breathtaking!

There's rattlesnakes in NY, for Chrissakes. I've run into one three times on trails in the Bear Mountain-Hudson Highlands area.

(And when you do encounter one, it's usually cuz he's sitting coiled up right in the middle of the freaking trail, soaking up some sun, which makes it really freaking easy to walk or run right up on him without seeing him.

On one of those encounters I came within two feet of stepping right on him, which scared the crap out of me.)

And I spent over a year in NM, and lots of time on the trails all through the Sandias, and never ran into a scorpion, tarantula, or rattlesnake once. (Though I did see plenty of roadrunners, prairie dogs, coyotes, and one mountain lion --which scared the living sh*t out of me.)

There are not rattlesnakes in Flagstaff proper, or higher. The snakes you do see are non-poisonous, like king snakes and garter snakes. Drop a little lower in elevation and you might encounter rattlesnakes. Random snakebites happen, but often it's someone playing with or otherwise provoking the snake.

There are not zero scorpions in Flag, but they're quite rare. Nothing to worry about. The lower you drop in elevation from Flag, the more you'll encounter.

One of the reasons I love the lush forests of Vermont. Nothing but the occasional Mosquito, tick, and black bear.

You forgot the limes

My town is infested with annoying bishes

I don't take chances. I stay on the track.