LOL!  Ain't nature grand?!

MaryL

Probably thought he had found a cool spot to wait out the heat wave.
Then decided to move on since the crazy hoomin kept pestering him LOL

When I was a kid, in the 60s, we had a California desert tortoise. Not
a good thing I know, I think they're a protected species now, but back
then no one knew any better. In fact, one of the elementary school
teachers at the school across the street from where we lived had him
in the classroom and gave him to us at the end of the school year.

During the hot Bakersfield, California, summer, when highs in the 100s
are not uncommon, he would spent days on end in a burrow he dug in the
back yard.

We didn't actually keep him very long, since it drove Bobo, the
dachshund, crazy. Bobo ignored the tortoise when it was out of its
hole, but his instinct told him he was supposed to go down into holes
to hunt; here was a hole with a critter inside; and the hoomins got
mad when he went in after the critter. We tried to rig it so that Bobo
couldn't get into the hole, but of course Bobo figured out how to get
around any and all of our obstacles. We ended up giving the tortoise
to one of my brother's friends after a few weeks.

His tummy was probably cool enough.  It takes the ground a long time
to warm up or cool down, which is why the water coming out of the
cold tap is about the same temperature year round.  Mr. Turtle may
have left once the bottom of the hole warmed up to air temperature,
or he may have decided just to go somewhere more private.