Visitors spark outrage after discovering illegal activity at popular hiking spot: 'That really is a sad sight'

A resident of Phoenix, Arizona, sparked the internet's ire after sharing photos of vandalism at one of the city's most iconic parks.

Posting in the r/phoenix subreddit, they shared graffiti on one of the massive rocks at Papago Park, just outside of Tempe.

"Nothing pisses me off more." — Photo Credit: Reddit

The photos show a large white asterisk on a blue background.

"I wonder who did this and what it means," the caption said. "I saw news coverage about it and went to see where exactly it was."

Papago is one of Phoenix's most iconic parks and a stellar example of the desert landscape of the area. Massive sandstone buttes and boulders dot the park, jutting out of the Earth, creating a uniquely martian-looking landscape that is incredibly popular with hikers in the area.

While the meaning of the symbol is unclear, Fox 10 in Phoenix reported that the graffiti will need to be removed as soon as possible, because the spot where it was painted is sacred to Native American tribes in the area, according to Alex Jovanovic, Tempe's deputy director of community services.

"Something like this is considered desecration to their sacred spaces," Jovanovic said.

Removing the graffiti is both time-consuming and expensive. Because sandstone is notoriously fragile and easily damaged by high-pressure water or sandblasting, and because the delicate desert ecosystem is vulnerable to a lot of chemical cleaners, special, biodegradable cleaning solutions have to be used. And even those cleaners could have a harmful impact on the immediate environment.

Jovanovic said the process would likely cost "in the thousands instead of the hundreds," while noting that smaller graffiti previously cost around $15,000 to remove.

Commenters on the Reddit post were incensed by the vandalism.