- A giant sculpture of Elon Musk's head now spotted in Yosemite National Park.
- One sign accompanying the likeness reads, "MAKE AMERICA WAIT AGAIN."
- It appears to be a protest of the cuts Musk and DOGE made to national parks.
The giant sculpture of Elon Musk’s head spotted at Arches National Park in Utah earlier this month was seen again this past weekend several states away.
Pulled on a trailer behind a white Dodge pickup, the approximately 12-foot tall likeness of the world’s wealthiest man showed up at Yosemite National Park in California. It is accompanied by two signs: “MAKE AMERICA WAIT AGAIN” and “Now With Longer Lines Thanks to DOGE Cuts!”
The statue appears to be a protest against the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. The agency, which Musk has since left to focus on his own companies, made large cuts at national parks earlier this year. In January and February, it fired at least 1,000 employees and offered buyouts to many more.
Department of the Interior policy forbids employees from discussing personnel, so National Park Service staffing numbers after the cuts have not yet been confirmed. However, the National Parks Conservation Association researched publicly available documents and found that the NPS has 24% fewer employees than it did in January.
A Yosemite visitor named Greg Perkins told KQED, a San Francisco-based media company, that he saw the Musk head go through the park and pass some of the more recognizable landmarks including El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. He took photos that he posted on Reddit, which have received more than a thousand up-votes, and then shared them with that newsroom.
The identity of the creator of the sculpture and who is driving it around isn’t known at this point.
Yosemite is one of the most visited national parks in the nation, often landing within the top 10 behind places like Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Grand Canyon and Zion.
Arches is not on that list, but is also one of the highest trafficked parks within the country.
