A group of hikers, who celebrated after toppling a 200-million-year-old rock formation in a Utah park, are facing possible felony charges after a video of them pushing the rocks over was posted on YouTube.
The men, named on the The Salt Lake Tribune YouTube page as Dave Hall, Glenn Taylor and Dylan Taylor, are seen pushing over large rock boulders in the Goblin Valley, Utah.
"We have now modified Goblin Valley," one of the men says in the video, soliciting a cheer from the man behind him. "A new Goblin Valley exists, with, uh, this boulder down here [at] the bottom," he elaborates, pointing the camera at the large rock now resting below its former perch.
"Some little kid was about ready to walk down here and die," the cameraman continues. "Glenn saved his life by getting the boulder out of the way. So, it's all about saving lives here at Goblin Valley."
Reached for comment by the Salt Lake Tribune, Glenn Taylor, the man who pushed the rock over, maintained they thought they'd done a civic service, though he expressed regret for not having contacted a park ranger.
"I put my hand on a rock and it moved," he told the paper. "While we were sitting right there we thought, ‘Man if this rock falls it'll kill them.’ I didn't have to push hard."
Jeff Rasmussen, deputy director of Utah State Parks and Recreation, told Fox13 News: “It’s a valley full of these rocks that are perched up on these earth platforms, and obviously we’re very concerned and upset that someone would come and destroy this natural wonder that took millions of years to be formed,” he said.
The oddly shaped formations in the valley, which are known as hoodoos, were formed from the weathering process of Entrada Sandstone.