The water pooled in the remote mounds of petrified Navajo sandstone at Snow Canyon State Park was blue — but it wasn’t supposed to be.
Trail technician Hunter Belcher had sprayed the area, to get the blue tint from a powder canyon — a device often used at gender reveal celebrations — off of the landmark’s vibrant red rocks. Belcher said he spent five hours and more than 24 gallons of water in December, using a backpack sprayer and a broom to fling puddles of water away as he removed the residue.
“I’m dedicated to the job,” said Belcher, 25. “Yeah, I got tired, but it didn’t bother me at all, doing the work.”
But, he added with a scoff, “it did bother me that there was a huge stain.”
More than 1 million visitors go to Snow Canyon every year, said the park’s naturalist, Cheyenne Winchester — and that number is “only going up.” But “record” attendance has added to the park’s vandalism problems, making park maintenance a “little overwhelming” for its three full-time staffers.
Devan Chavez, public information officer with Utah State Parks, said Snow Canyon has seen “higher levels of vandalism” compared to other state parks, including those in nearby St. George.
“We do want people to come here,” Winchester said. “But we want to make sure that they are properly informed, because if we get more people coming to the park, and we continue having this growth of vandalism, we won’t be able to handle it.”
Park rangers and the state’s Department of Natural Resources said that, as of Thursday, no leads have led them to whoever fired the powder cannon in Snow Canyon. The Department has asked anyone with information about that incident, or other vandalism at Snow Canyon, to call the park directly at 435-628-2255.
(Hunter Belcher) Graffiti found on rock formations along one of the trails in Snow Canyon State Park near St. George.
‘It’s every hour’
Every week, Winchester said she stops along Snow Canyon Drive, picks up an empty pack of Camel Crush cigarettes and throws it into the back of her white Ford pickup.
For more than three months, Winchester has collected these empty boxes on the state park’s only “driveable road,” a path locals use as a shortcut between St. George and nearby Ivins to “more mountainous” communities like Dameron Valley. She’s up to 15 boxes. Her colleagues tell her the boxes have appeared there for the last six years.
“I feel bad for this person who’s smoking all these cigarettes,” Winchester said. “That’s not very healthy.”
“Larger acts of vandalism,” like the park’s powder cannon incident, take place “about five or six times a year,” Winchester said. But the “smaller stuff,” she said – from littering to carved graffiti, “happens nonstop.”
“It’s every hour,” Winchester said. “We can hike out on a trail, clean stuff up. On the hike back, it’s already vandalized again.”
On Tuesday, his first day back from his holiday break, Belcher said he spent nearly four hours cleaning up graffiti at one of the park’s shorter trails. Weeks before, he logged up to 14 hours of vandalism clean-up – a quarter to a third of his work put into trail maintenance, Belcher said.
“There’s a lot of other things I could be doing,” Belcher said. “I could be going out and pruning or maintaining certain things on trails, but sometimes I have to go out and remove the graffiti when that time could be used for something better.”
Winchester said there’s enough vandalism at the park to keep five full-time employees busy cleaning it up.
“Sometimes, it’s a little disheartening,” Winchester said. “These rangers are putting in so much work to keep the park clean, but it really comes down to the visitor and protecting their privilege.”
(Hunter Belcher) Graffiti found on rock formations along one of the trails in Snow Canyon State Park near St. George.
Gender reveals and other party stuff
Doug Rich, a retired firefighter and paramedic who often goes off-roading in Snow Canyon when visiting relatives in St. George, said he’s had his own experiences with vandalism at Veterans Memorial Park in West Jordan. Those include two times when he’s found glitter bombs and party stringers discarded in gazebos and picnic areas.
Rich said he saw Snow Canyon’s post about the powder cannon and took to social media to share his problems with gender-reveal trends.
“I suppose if somebody wants to share it with the world,” said Rich, 69, “that’s their business, but I don’t think the world should be left a dirtier place because of it.”
Winchester said there are other vandalism she’s seen at Snow Canyon include confetti cannons, tossed flower petals and smashed pumpkins. The pumpkins, dumped in one of the park’s restricted vegetation areas, took several volunteers two hours to clean up, she said.
Some of this vandalism is popularized by social media — which Winchester called “a double-edged sword,” because online platforms can also help visitors feel connected to the park.
“Letting people know that they can have this connection with each other through social media platforms, I think, is really important,” Winchester said. “They’re wanting this connection. We just need to give them an appropriate way to get that fulfilled.”
