Alien Throne, a New Mexico Rock Formation, Found Broken After Heavy Rains
The Alien Throne, a tall, eroded rock column on the Valley of Dreams trail in northwest New Mexico, has been found broken into pieces, The Guardian reported.
Kialo Winters discovered the collapse on 30 October while leading a tour of the trail. Winters, who has guided visitors to the region for 13 years as founder of Navajo Tours USA, attributed the collapse to heavy rains and the super El Niño season. El Niño is a recurring weather pattern tied to warmer waters in the Pacific Ocean.
Rain and flooding had hit northwest New Mexico about a week before the discovery. According to The Guardian, the storms forced evacuations and led to hundreds of water rescues of residents who were stranded.
The Valley of Dreams rock spires, including the Alien Throne, sit on Navajo Nation land near the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness. The Navajo Nation and the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that manages public lands, are expected to examine the site to confirm what caused the collapse.
Photos taken on a Friday afternoon, published by KRQE, showed the top portion of the formation lying on the ground beside its base. The rock was estimated to be more than 75 million years old, according to a Yahoo News report.
Another nearby hoodoo, the King of Wings, was also damaged in recent weeks. Posts by users of AllTrails, a hiking app and website, indicate that it broke sometime before 9 October.
