A love-struck teen vandalized Colorado National Monument/NPS

A love-struck teen apparently anxious to land a prom date painted a proposal on rocks at Colorado National Monument, an act that could land them a $5,000 fine and some jail time.

Park staff are seeking leads into who was responsible for the graffiti -- "You're Perfect to Me", "I Promise to love You Forever + Always!", and "Prom...Ise?" -- left on rocks in the monument. The vandalism was spotted May 23 by someone who lives near the monument.

“The story’s gone viral after we posted it on our Facebook page," said Ranger Frank Hayde on Monday during a phone call. "CNN has run the story, the local news of course, Denver. It’s spread far and wide.  We were hoping that some of that media attention could lead to either a tip or confession."

Unfortunately, the case so far remains unsolved. But not necessarily unsolvable.

"We do solve a significant number of the graffiti cases," Ranger Hayde said. "It can be hard if nobody leaves a calling card, so to speak, a name or initials Something like that. So it can be difficult.”

Whether the perpetrator brought his/her hoped for date to the monument to show off their handiwork, which was applied with spray paint, or painted the requests and then photographed them and texted them to the individual isn't known.

"My first instinct was that they brought the person there. It's in a rock formation called White Rocks. And White Rocks is a popular place for young people to go. You can climb up into the White Rocks and be hidden from view," said the ranger. "There’s a series of narrow corridors within this formation that are almost like secret passageways in a way. You could go up to White Rocks, spend an hour there, and not even see this graffiti because it’s kind of tucked away."

The area is well known to rangers, though, because it has a reputation as a party spot for local teens, and fireworks have been a problem there, said Ranger Hayde.

There also are some petroglyphs and pictographs in that area, and park resource management specialists were going to assess the graffiti to see if it damaged any. Once that has been completed, Park Service staff will work on removing the graffiti.

"We have staff that is trained in graffiti removal," the ranger said. "The Park Service is very meticulous about that."

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.

Among other recent cases:

* Social media outrage led to a bust in a graffiti case, this one in Zion National Park in Utah where a visitor thought previous scribbles on a rock on the path to Angels Landing made it OK for him to add his own.

* There's no red rock in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so vandals took to the Lakeview Drive tunnel backin 2015.

* At Death Valley National Park, vandals last year went to the bottom of Ubehebe Crater and carved symbols and letters into the mud floor of the crater. The marks would likely have been erased by the next significant rainfall, according to park staff, but that can be a long wait in Death Valley. 

Back at Colorado National Monument, officials are taking tips via 970-858-3617 ext. 360.