This photo comes to us from a very productive trip a couple years ago. Before doing this picture I spent the sunset portion of the day across the road in Canyonlands National Park probably getting something of Soda Springs Canyon.

Even though the day only had an hour or so remaining I had to stand in line to climb over to the spot to get this picture. I truly love going on long road trips to stand in these places and test ideas of pictures to make, but the crowds are beginning to get to me. I like not shooting loud weddings sometimes. I never enjoyed going to news events with twenty other photographers vying for the shot. It’s getting that way in the National Parks now. Need to start exploring the less traveled road, but I love these places too much.

I wanted to see what the classic Turret Arch photo with the red stone below and stars above might look like. The trip took place before I spent a pile of money on the Canon RF 14-35mm lens. I only had the amazing Canon RF 28-70mm f2 wedding lens for the trip. The f2 feature of the lens came in really handy with all the moonlight shots I did on the trip. Plus I discovered 28mm is wide enough for most work. That said, the lens weighs three pounds. Hiking with that brick quickly became a chore.

So I linger waiting and finally get my turn to go do a quick picture. The path I ended up taking in the almost pitch black shadow lit only with my flashlight beam went higher than the normal path. Why? Because I couldn’t see the easier path. Being a natural born slacker I always take the quicker and easier path when possible. Didn’t see it in the dark.

I’m moving slowly trying to make sure of each step because a slip would end horribly at the bottom. I shine my flashlight down to see the next step and there’s something black in the middle of the path. Instead of just going on and not thinking about it much, I look closer. And there in the middle of the path hanging on its ugly silk web sits a big fat Black Widow spider. Sitting there waiting for a pair of pants to brush by so it can jump aboard and start climbing.

I’m a person who occasionally gets spider nightmares so bad, I’ll jump out of bed and start shaking the blankets. To have almost walked into this is the stuff of nightmares for me. So I squished that scary thing under shoe. Then checked the sole to make sure it no longer threatened me. I flashed my light into and under every crevice and rock for the rest of the short photo session. Just seeing this picture gives me the creeps. Will most likely have a spider nightmares again tonight just writing this blog post.

The moral of this story is to always watch where you’re walking on whatever path you take. You never know what might be waiting in the middle of that path.