New Mexico’s Iconic Rock Formations Collapse After Heavy Rains

The formations, known as the Alien Throne and King of Wings, are located near the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness in the Four Corners region, which includes parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

Tour guide Kialo Winters discovered that the Alien Throne had broken into pieces on October 30 while leading visitors along the Valley of Dreams trail. Winters, who runs Navajo Tours USA, said he was shocked to find the landmark destroyed.

The nearby King of Wings formation had also collapsed in recent weeks, with photographs of its remains circulating on social media in early October.

The southwestern US has experienced successive rounds of heavy rainfall, with tropical moisture bringing widespread flooding to areas that were already saturated from an unusually wet autumn. Experts estimate that more than 20 trillion gallons of rain fell across the Four Corners states and Nevada during late October and early November.

The storms have caused extensive damage to homes, roads and bridges, while flooding rivers and normally dry waterways. Officials have estimated that the overall damage could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The exact cause of the Alien Throne’s collapse has not yet been established. The Navajo Nation and the Bureau of Land Management are expected to examine the site. Some reports also suggest that the King of Wings may have fallen before the most intense rainfall.

For Indigenous communities, the formations hold cultural and historical significance, having served as traditional waypoints along ancestral trade routes for generations.

Winters urged visitors to leave the damaged sites undisturbed, warning them against climbing the remains or taking pieces of rock home.

He said the landmarks would continue to be remembered through photographs, artwork and stories passed down through generations.