Graffiti Defaces Boulders in Yosemite National Park

Vandals recently scrawled graffiti inside Yosemite National Park near the popular Bridalveil Falls Trail.

The incident was first reported by The Fresno Bee, and eyewitnesses confirmed the vandalism to Outside. 

Ando Arakelyan, a park visitor, told Outside that the vandals spray-painted the word “Yeti” on two boulders, an information plaque, and a bathroom door inside the park. The tagged areas are near one of the park’s most famous waterfalls.

Arakelyan, 33, told Outside that he first spotted the graffiti on Sunday, January 25. Arakelyan visits Yosemite almost every week and says he encounters graffiti in the park with increasing regularity. In the past, Arakelyan says he’s seen graffiti along other popular trails, such as the Mist Trail and the Yosemite Falls Trail.

“I probably see something every couple of months,” he said to Outside. “It’s not that uncommon anymore to see graffiti in the park, and a lot of trash as well.”

Yosemite is one of the most heavily-trafficked parks in the country. In 2024, more than 4 million people visited the park alone.

The park has also been plagued by bad visitor behavior in recent months. In October 2025, during the federal government’s shutdown, BASE jumpers made illegal jumps from the park’s giant rock formations—and the NPS was very public in its pursuit of the individuals.

Rock climbing guide Defne Dilsiz, who works for the guide service Yosemite Mountaineering School, told Outside that she also frequently sees graffiti in the park.

“That exact boulder has been graffiti before,” Dilsiz said.

In May 2022, Yosemite was the victim of another graffiti incident. The words “Fresno” and “559” (the city’s area code) were sprayed onto at least 30 different rocks near the Yosemite Falls trail. The section of painted rocks was larger than a car.

Yosemite is hardly the only park that deals with graffiti. In April 2025, the staff at Arches National Park in Utah wrote on its website that graffiti was a common problem there. In November of that year, amid the 43-day federal government shutdown, rocks around Arches were found tagged with spray paint.

If caught, the vandals could face serious consequences. Vandalizing surfaces in a national park—be it a natural surface, like a rock, or a manmade structure, like an informational plaque—is a federal misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in prison and fines up to $5,000.

Anyone convicted of defacing certain sensitive surfaces, such as petroglyphs or rock art, faces steeper penalties. In November, a woman was caught and charged with a felony for vandalizing ancient petroglyphs near Moab. She faced nearly $15,000 in fines and restitution fees, as well as a year of probation.

Outside contacted the National Park Service for comment on whether a but did not hear back at the time of this writing. We will update this article accordingly.