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SALT LAKE CITY – A Colorado photographer said he saw Southeast Utah’s now famous monolith fall to the ground and knows exactly how and why it went missing last weekend.
The mysterious monolith gained worldwide attention and intrigue after it was discovered in a remote area southwest of Moab, on a 4×4 road near the Canyonlands Needles district.
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How he ended up in a secret location half a mile down the road is still a mystery, but photographer Ross Bernards explains how he went missing – and what the group who took him told him while carrying him in pieces. .
Ross Bernards goes on an adventure for his career.
“I’m an adventure and outdoor lifestyle photographer, that’s what I do for a living,” he said. “So my job depends on me finding unique and cool places.”
The photographer, who is based in Colorado, explained that he was also a certified canyoning guide. Bernards said he has worked with outdoor brands like Kelty, Sierra Designs, and Utah-based Ogden Made.
He is often found in some of the most remote places in Utah and says eastern Utah is his “happy place.”
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When a place in the middle of nowhere in its happy place found itself in the middle of an international monolith mystery last week, Bernards decided to check it out in person.
He said he wanted to go to the monolith before it was gone, or before the masses found out.
“I wanted to go over there and try light painting with my drone,” Bernards said.
Within days of reading an article about the formation of the metal, Bernards realized that the coordinates were posted online. Realizing that time is running out, he and three friends make the multi-hour hike on Friday.
They arrived after dark and the Bernards explained that they were done with the monolith for themselves.
READ: BLM says some visitors to ‘monolith’ damaged public lands
The four of them took pictures of the monolith in the moonlight. About an hour later, Bernards described what he saw after saying that four other visitors had come.
“Two of them step back, two walk forward and walk towards the monolith and start to push on it a bit,” he said. “And then one of them turns to my friends who are a little further up the canyon next door – where I was a little further back – and says, ‘Hope you have your pictures.’ “
After that, Bernards said the two gave the monolith a few big hits, and he started to lean over.
“That’s when the others came, and all four of them pushed him to one side, then pushed him to the other side,” he recalls. “And he fell straight to the ground.”
Just like that, Bernards watched the monolith that has padded and mystified people all over the world, topple over.
“Right after he fell and made a loud ‘thud’ one of them said, ‘That’s why you don’t leave garbage in the desert,’ Bernards said.
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He explained that the group had started breaking the monolith into pieces to throw it into a wheelbarrow.
“As they loaded it up and walked away, they just said, ‘Leave no trace’, and left,” he said.
Bernards explained that he and his friends camped overnight and even cleaned up some of the rivets left over from the falling monolith.
Fast forward to the next morning – the message of the monolith demolishers in mind – Bernards would discover that he was not the only person who set out to see the strange metal sculpture in person.
He took photos showing several vehicles lined up and parked on the roadway, with more driving towards the area.
“You could see the dust road just going up, and you could just see it coming and going car after car,” Bernards said. “I mean, we probably saw 70 or 80 different cars there.”
He said there were several people in each car, some with dogs roaming off leashes.
Bernards recounted how he saw people walking all over the land, some even going up the wrong canyon in search of the monolith.
Not to mention that people had overrun an area miles away on a high clearance 4×4 road. Bernards recounted seeing minivans and sedans attempting to navigate the road.
He expressed concern that this would result in search and rescue calls and place an undue burden on local authorities as well as the Bureau of Land Management.
“It made me realize exactly why these people did it,” he said. “One of the reasons we haven’t stopped them is that we all agree with them.”
Bernards said he had been called by people saying he was part of the problem, and he said he understood it perfectly.
Bernards said he practices the ‘leave no trace’ principle and said his job is to visit places off the beaten track in a responsible manner.
He also explained that he had a lot of experience in desert navigation and four-wheel driving.
Still, he said he felt guilty after making the trip.
After seeing the number of people who showed up, Bernards said the monolith did not need to be there.
“Leave art where art should be and let Mother Nature have her space for art,” he said.
And for anyone who adheres to conspiracy theories about the how and why around the mysterious metal monument and its sudden disappearance, Bernards can at least set the record straight.
“The aliens weren’t involved in any way, form or form in this thing. They had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t a secret government project either. None of it had anything to do with it. do with that, ”Bernards said, with a smile and chuckle. “It was clearly a work of art by someone.”
A work of art with a wild and swirling week that is now part of the desert past.
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