Oregon’s only national park — Crater Lake — and nine others appear to have been hit by a vandal who has gone viral.

An upstate New York woman apparently painted and drew on rocks at national parks around the West this summer, sparking online backlash and spurring an investigation after possibly posting pictures of her creations on the Internet.

The vandalism could lead to felony charges, Jeffrey Olson, spokesman for the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. said Friday.

“It depends on the kind of damage,” said Olson, who declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

Along with Crater Lake National Park south of Bend, vandalism at Yosemite and Death Valley national parks in California and Zion and Canyonlands national parks in Utah was confirmed by Olson.

Investigators are also trying to confirm that vandalism occurred at Grand Canyon, Sequoia Kings Canyon, Joshua Tree, Rocky Mountain and Bryce Canyon national parks.

Calipidder and Modern Hiker, a pair of outdoor blogs, spread word earlier this week about the apparent vandalism. Internet outrage grew as the story made it onto Reddit. Modern Hiker identified the alleged vandal as a young woman from upstate New York, who used acrylic paint and markers to create paintings and drawings at the parks. She then apparently posted pictures of the work on Instagram and Tumblr. The vandalism in the parks and the online presence were marked with the name “creepytings.”

As of Friday morning no charges have been filed, Olson said.

The Bulletin is withholding the woman’s name because she hasn’t been charged with a crime. A New York phone number listed under her name was no longer in service Friday.

Shelley Hall, superintendent at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, said she is thankful the popular national Park Service spot northeast of Bend wasn’t victimized.

“I will say that national parks preserve our nation’s heritage, so vandalism is taken seriously,” she said.

Closer to Bend, law enforcement officers with the Deschutes National Forest often run into small-scale vandalism and graffiti, including the bashing signs, carving into trees and painting in caves, said Capt. Dan Smith of the U.S. Forest Service in Bend.

And the cleanup can be complex.

In April 2011, vandals struck Hidden Forest Cave off China Hat Road southeast of Bend. Using spray paint they scrawled words onto cliffs just outside the cave, covering up pictographs, or ancient drawings.

A tip led to the Forest Service to arrest three men, a boy and a girl, who were convicted of misdemeanor criminal mischief. As part of their punishment they paid more than $20,000 in restitution, which helped cover the cost of an expert from England who lead the 2012 removal of the graffiti while preserving the pictographs.

“It’s hard to do and it takes experts to clean up a pictograph,” he said. “I mean you can’t just take a sandblaster in there.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7812, ddarling@bendbulletin.com