Mesa Arch

During our Moab trip, we got up at 4AM to get the best spot to watch the sunrise at Mesa Arch, pretty cool

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Nature never fails to astound, inspire, and invigorate. Moab is climbing the charts of places I want to visit.

We got up well before dawn to make the drive and to take the short hike to Mesa arch so my wife could take her pick of where to put her tripod to take the pictures she wanted.
As we waited through the predawn with another photographer who arrived after we did and a family whose camera was not charged, we heard this huge commotion on the trail behind us.

Two packed bus loads of Asian tourists were literally running down the trail towards us, following a tour guide with a yellow flag...

Mesa arch is on a cliff, mind you, we were roughly 30+ feet from the edge...I know I looked crazy sweeping my wife and daughter behind me and gripping her monopod in one hand like a club, and flipping my 3 D-cell Mag light in my other hand getting the business end ready....thankfully the wave parted around us before I made an idiot of myself and someone got hurt..

With me solidly in the way Christina continued last minute checks and I observed in what I can only refer to as mute horror while the newcomers jostled each other, tripping and stumbling over each other and their equipment ...I saw 2-3 people had parts if their body over the brink before recovering their balance, and at least one woman was saved by a desperate grab of her belt as she struggled for balance.while teetering on the edge.

The last time I saw something similar I was in AStan and some soldiers at a FOB were giving candy to some local children....but the children were smiling and happy as they rushed for the candy...this was just plain surreal.