North Window and Turret Arch in Snowstorm, Utah
I don’t think there is a landscape photographer alive who doesn’t recognize this iconic scene in Arches National Park. Most photographers arrive before sunrise to scramble up to the tiny, mildly exposed perch that affords this perspective. When the sandstone is dry, it’s a relatively easy task. When it’s covered in snow and ice, it becomes a formidable obstacle. At sunrise on a bluebird day you’ll have to wage battle with several other photographers for this spot. You’ll vie with no one during an active snowstorm.
I made this photo in early March, 2007 while recovering from a broken back. Six weeks earlier I was involved in a violent, high speed car crash. At 80 MPH I’d swerved to avoid a deer (stupid) and lost control of my vehicle. The car slid sideways into a metal pole, spun around and collided with a boulder while traveling backwards, then flipped end over end into a culvert. The car came to rest on it’s rear bumper, upside down, with the front of the vehicle supported by the limbs of a sturdy cottonwood tree. I wasn’t wearing a seat belt (even more stupid). The force of the crash broke the drivers seat completely off of it’s mounts and I was lying under it in the back seat when my friend T.J. and his extrication crew arrived and cut me out of the crumpled mess. An ambulance arrived, morphine was administered, I was taken to one hospital and then another in a different state. I’d later discover that I had fractured two vertebrae – T10 and T12. I spent two days in the hospital before I was discharged and allowed to go home with strict orders to spend the first four weeks lying on the couch. After that, my doctor said I could start doing short walks around the block.
Some time around the six week mark a winter storm arrived in Moab. All that red sandstone was blanketed in snow and the photographic potential was irresistible. Ever the idiot, I grabbed my Lowepro chest pack and my backpack, loaded up my tripod and headed to Arches. I drove straight to the Windows area and upon arriving in the parking lot and seeing ground level fog all around, immediately forgot that I was only supposed to be “walking around the block”. I put on the Topload chest pack and quickly realized that all the weight of my camera was resting where the chest pack straps come together – right on top of T10 and T12. I hurried up the trail toward North Window. I scrambled over the slickrock, which was covered in snow and patches of ice, finally arriving at the spot where I set up my tripod and made the image you see below.
The entire experience was a religious one for me. Only six weeks earlier I was saved from serious injury or death by some unknown and unseen force. Lying in the back of a cold, upside down car, struggling to breathe through intense pain, I’d never felt more alone. I used my cell phone to call Melissa and told her that I’d been in an accident. I told her I’d already called for help and asked her to meet me at the hospital, not knowing if I’d even make it there. I told her how much I loved her and when I heard the sirens approaching, I hung up the phone.
And now, here I was making photographs in a snowstorm in Arches National Park. I was filled with love and happiness in a way I’d never known. I was jubilant. I was emotional. I was alive. Indeed, every day, every hour, every minute is a gift.
Purchase a fine art print of this Arches National Park photograph
Read “My Favorite Photos of the Decade – Part Four” here
