Two videos posted online in the past week appear to show an arch and a hoodoo being blown up in a slickrock desert — and the video titles claim they are in Utah.
But multiple experts on southern Utah’s wild lands said they don’t recognize the formations, and officials with the Bureau of Land Management said they are trying to learn if the sites are actually in Utah.
Meanwhile, special effects professionals who reviewed the videos say they were “very convincing,” but they could be digitally manipulated.
“I’m ruling out miniatures altogether,” said Clark Schaffer, who owns Schaffer Studios in Spanish Fork and has worked for major studios in Hollywood, developing special effects for such blockbusters as the “Iron Man" and “Star Trek” movies.