Vandals with a bucket of blue paint vandalized sandstone in Zion National Park/NPS

Editor's note: This updates with additional details from the park.

Vandals, possibly trying to get paint molds of sandstone outcroppings at Zion National Park, painted vivid blue blocks in the Kolob Terrace area of the park, spurring an investigation into who's responsible.

Law enforcement rangers spotted the blocks on July 8 while on patrol on the Kolob Terrace Road. The paint had been heavily applied and was still wet, Zion spokesman Jeff Axel said Friday afternoon. The rangers, thinking they might be able to capture photos of the perpetrator, came back two days later to install cameras in the area, but by then the blocks had been removed, he said.

"The thinking now is that it is most likely for a mold/texture for someone doing concrete work or maybe metal work, but we don't know that for a fact," Axel said. "The thinking is they peeled it off as sheets and then perhaps took it back their construction site to use as a texture, maybe for decorative concrete work. But that’s just speculation."

The vandals painted approximately six bright blue squares, approximately 3-foot by 3-foot, on the sandstone a mile south of the Wildcat Trailhead. Just a few "blobs" of paint were left behind by the individuals, said Axel.

"Ninety-five percent of it is gone," he said.

If you have information that could help identify those responsible, please contact the park. This information could help investigators.  Callers don’t have to identify who they are but are asked to share what they know so rangers can prevent this from happening in the future. 

Information can be provided via the Park Service's tip line: (888) 653-0009.

Graffiti has been a long-running problem in the National Park System. Perhaps the most notable, and offensive, case in recent years was a trail of images, applied in acrylic paints, a New York woman left across Western parks in 2014.

In 2016 Casey Nocket, 23, pleaded guilty in a federal court to seven misdemeanors. She was banned from all lands administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Army Corps of Engineers.

According to court documents, Nocket damaged rock formations within seven national parks during a 26-day period in 2014, drawing or painting on them using acrylic paints and markers. In a case that drew national attention, Nocket was tracked via photos on her Instagram account.

National Park Service investigators confirmed that images were painted on rocks and boulders in Yosemite National Park and Death Valley National Park, both in California; Rocky Mountain National Park and Colorado National Monument, both in Colorado; Crater Lake National Park, in Oregon; and Zion National Park and Canyonlands National Park, both in Utah.