Graffiti reported at Arches National Park
Monday, November 10, 2025
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Devil's Garden Trail in Arches National Park, where new graffiti has been reported. Ken Lund |
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The ongoing government shutdown is taking a toll on national parks, as demonstrated by the discovery of fresh graffiti in Utah's Arches National Park. Last week, retired National Park Service worker Allyson Mathis was on a hike when she spotted the word “GRUG” and other markings in white spray on several rock formations above Devil's Garden Trail, alongside scattered toilet paper.
Mathis shared photos of the graffiti and litter with the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. She also reported seeing people with dogs on hiking trails inside the park, which is against park rules. “Sure, they are letting people go inside the parks, but there isn’t the protection and resource management that there should be,” Mathis told Outside. “This is a consequence of the parks not being staffed. Arches is extremely vulnerable.”
Other parks and public lands are also struggling as they continue to operate while understaffed. Earlier this month, one of the stone walls at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania was knocked down, Yellowstone National Park is experiencing an increase in “bear jams” without the staff to resolve them, and illegal BASE jumpers have been reported at Yosemite National Park.
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 I just don’t see how a corporate entity or commercial entity could [run a park] without making them unaffordable. They would become national parks for those that can afford it, as opposed to all Americans.”
—Jeff Mow, former superintendent of Glacier National Park, Inside Climate News
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@deadhorsepoint
When you look out over the vast panoramic view from Dead Horse Point, you're witnessing the story of the succession of diverse landscapes spread across history.
While today, our place in the world is a semi-arid desert characterized by its juniper-pinion shrublands, high mesas, and thick biocrust, this hasn't always been the case! Looking down the canyon, the sheer walls of Wingate Sandstone were deposited in an arid erg desert, with tall, wind-blown dunes of loose sand, while the sloping, multicolored Chinle Formation beneath the wall is composed of rock that formed in a wetland with large networks of rivers, lakes, and floodplains. The plate-like rocks that form the top of the canyon wall belong to the Kayenta Formation, an environment that hosted sandy, braided rivers and shallow lakes.
All of these depositional environments hosted unique ecosystems, and may contain within them fossils which help tell the story of life as it has existed at Dead Horse Point for millions of years. In geological terms, the view that we see today is very young! If we condensed all of earth's history into a 24 hour day, the Colorado River, which carves out our view, emerged only 2 minutes to midnight! As it carved away at the Colorado Plateau, it removed up to 2 miles of additional sedimentary layers, exposing in the process the mountains that surround us! Believe it or not, the La Sals, the Abajos, and the Henry Mountains, like all other laccoliths across the plateau, cooled underground and only emerged when the rocks above them eroded away!
Next time you visit the overlook at Dead Horse Point, take a moment to appreciate the depth of time and the power of nature that stands before you!
To get up close with the geology surrounding Dead Horse Point, make sure to attend our Telescopic Geo-Tour on Tuesday, November 25th, at 4:00pm! We'll use our telescope and binoculars to point out several unique geological features visible from the overlook!
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