Ryan Bonneau Photo Blog

The story on this photo is about as crazy as it gets!  I drove down to Arches because I thought being mid-winter and during some of the coldest temps in Moab’s history there would be very few people in the park.  I have never photographed Arches because of the mobs of people that are almost always there.  Anyway, I woke up around 5:30 this morning and drove back up to the Turret arch area for the classic shot of North Window arch framing Turret.  I really liked the addition of the snow to give the image a little pop and uniqueness.  I climbed up to the area and set up on a rock outcrop in the dark and started to shoot some photos while waiting for the sun to rise.  Soon I heard someone coming close and another photographer made the scramble up the rocks and set up next to me.  I guess one other person is not so bad compared to the normal crowds.  We chatted for a while waiting for the good light and he told me funny stories about shooting some of the “iconic” locations with hundreds of other people and some of the confrontations that ensued.  Finally the sun hit the Arches turning the sandstone bright orange and we snapped away at the glorious scene in front of us.  A minute later a man stumbled up in front of us and stood in our shots.  After he did not move for a little bit the photographer next to me yells out ” excuse me could you please move a little to the side, were taking photos from up here and your in the frame.”  Personally I would not have said anything as I don’t think I’m any more important than other tourists just because I have a big camera on a tripod but this was really no big deal.  The guy grunted and moved two steps to his right and was out of the frame.  He started to walk away we heard him yelling a slew of obscenities about us and grew louder and louder.  The other photographer and I looked at each other and I laughed and said this is why I don’t go to the National Parks often.  About a minute later he was back in a full fit of rage.  He tried to coax us down to fight and must of thought he could not make it up to us.  Most of his vocabulary consisted of four letter words about us and how he was going to kill us.  He raged about Ken Burns, minimum wage, liberals, college education,knocking us out, conservationists, native americans and how he was going to stab us.  He was dead serious about stabbing us and all I could think of is out of all the places I go and things I do it  wasn’t going to be a Bear that eats me or drowning while flipping my kayak, I’m going out by getting stabbed by some pysco in Arches National Park.  Anyway, this went on for 25 minutes and he left and came back 2 more times before finally leaving.  The photographer next to me called 911 and a ranger was on his way.  As the guy was leaving he was yelling something about “fucking up our cars.”  Now my truck has seen better days and I don’t really care about it but my dog was in my truck and I was very concerned about this maniac doing something to her.  We made our way to the trail and saw the car leaving the parking lot and luckily another car had pulled in deterring the guy from doing anything to our cars or my dog.  A few minutes later the ranger came up and took our stories and went to try to get the dude.  I think the lesson to this whole episode is if your going to do meth early in the morning don’t go to a national park!