Lake Mead National Recreation Area staff members Chanteil Walter, top, and Michelle Zuro rappel down a cliff on the Colorado River during a graffiti cleanup operation Monday. In three years, crews have removed 800 square feet of graffiti from a site 27 miles from Hoover Dam. Photos by Clint Karlsen. Lake Mead National Recreation Area staff members Michelle Zuro, right, and Chanteil Walter use hammers to smash rock that was painted years ago by vandals.

It took a rope, a rock hammer and a jug of paint remover, but Michelle Zuro has finally put an end to three years of frustration.

On Monday, Zuro and her National Park Service restoration crew rappelled down the face of a cliff above the Colorado River and removed about 30 square feet of graffiti that she first cataloged in 2003.

"This is so exciting," Zuro said as she watched crew member Dottie Vauls lower herself down to one patch of blue and black spray paint.

Zuro heads up the small crew tasked with repairing what she called "pretty much any random disturbance" within the 1.5 million acre Lake Mead National Recreation Area. That includes everything from litter and graffiti to cactus poaching and the scars left by off-road vehicles.

"It's a little disheartening sometimes," she said. "The desert especially, it's a very fragile ecosystem."

Monday's cleanup took place on a bluff near Placer Cove, about 27 miles downstream from Hoover Dam. Judging by the amount of broken glass scattered there, the spot is frequented by people who like to drink beer and jump off into the cold water below.

Under the watchful eyes of some experienced climbers from the Park Service and the Bullhead City, Ariz., fire department, Vauls was the first to descend the cliff.

She had never rappelled before, but she quickly lowered herself to a ledge about 10 feet above the water. Once there, she unhooked herself from the rope and went to work on the graffiti with a wire brush and a spray bottle filled with biodegradable cleaning solution.

Zuro and Chanteil Walter soon joined her, scrubbing the painted rock while dangling from their ropes in front of the cliff. They used hammers and chisels to chip away some of the vandals' work.

Zuro said Placer Cove is particularly popular, especially among Southern Nevada residents, because there is no entrance fee and you can drive right up to the water's edge.

She said 99 percent of the park's graffiti is concentrated in the area around the cove and nearby Nelson's Landing, where state Route 165 completes its twisting route through Eldorado Canyon from U.S. Highway 95 south of Boulder City to the river.

The same area has serious problems with people cutting down trees for firewood and leaving their trash behind.

"It's very sad. There's a lot of broken glass," Zuro said. "I picked up so many dirty diapers out there it smelled like a toilet."

The area also gets its share of abandoned vehicles, including some that have been reduced to burned-out hulks. Earlier this year, Zuro said, "there were three of them I think in a one-week period."

Over the past 12 months, the Park Service has organized 18 cleanup events at Lake Mead. Those outings drew 1,128 volunteers, who helped haul off some 17 tons of trash.

The spray paint removed from the cliffs on Monday represented the last of about 800 square feet of graffiti that Zuro and company have cleaned up the past three years.

Now that they are mostly caught up, Lake Mead staffers are working hard to stay on top of the graffiti problem, though some new vandalism appeared recently on some rocks at the end of state Route 165.

Taggers have also struck several spots along the road through Eldorado Canyon, just outside the recreation area.

Zuro said she just can't understand people who wantonly trash scenic areas.

"It's pretty frustrating. It's frustrating that people don't appreciate public lands. They'd be mad if you took it away from them or made them pay for it, but they're not willing to protect it."

An attitude adjustment is definitely in order, she said.

"I guess at this point, as park staff, there's only so much we can do on the ground. You can only write so many tickets. You can only restrict so much traffic," she said. "I think it's a big cultural issue, and I don't know how to address it."