100-hour graffiti cleanup shuts caverns at California park. ‘What is wrong with people?’

Caverns at Pinnacles National Park in California will remain closed while rangers scrub graffiti left by visitors, park officials said.

“Graffiti that took a couple of minutes to spray will take well over 100 personnel hours and 500 pounds of equipment to remove,” rangers wrote on Facebook.

The Balconies Caves will remain closed through at least Wednesday for the clean-up project, rangers wrote.

Despite the inconvenience, “thoroughly removing the paint from the cave walls will benefit countless others over the many decades to come,” the Facebook post said.

The Balconies Caves consist of several passages and chambers that hikers can traverse in the 26,000-acre volcanic national park near Monterey.

“This makes me so sad and angry,” read one comment on the Facebook post. “What is wrong with people?”

“We need to catch people like this and make them remove it,” read another comment.

It’s not uncommon for visitors to deface natural landmarks with graffiti. Officials at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona recently removed 550 square feet of graffiti and carvings in Antelope Canyon, McClatchy News reported.

“Please respect everyone else that comes to visit by not leaving illegal graffiti or waste behind,” rangers said.

This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 10:18 AM with the headline "100-hour graffiti cleanup shuts caverns at California park. ‘What is wrong with people?’."