Hikers say they were among the first to capture video of the Utah monolith disappearance

The Utah monolith has left as mysteriously as it arrived. Hikers first noticed the structure missing on Friday night.

The monolith has gained international attention since the Department of Public Safety first spotted itlast week in a remote desert in southeastern Utah.

Some saw it as an art installation, others say it was left by aliens. Either way, it’s now gone.

Riccardo Marino and his girlfriend Sierra Van Meter were traveling from Colorado to California and decided to make a stop at the monolith along the way.

"This one was just a once in a lifetime experience that we couldn't miss out,” said Marino.

He said he was familiar with the backcountry and found the GPS coordinates to the monolith online. They arrived around 11:00 p.m. on Friday and planned to take some pictures.

"We had passed a truck, a long bed truck, early 2000s light-colored truck with a large object in the back, and I joked out loud like oh look., there's the Utah monolith right there,” he said.

When they arrived at the spot instead of the monolith, they found a message written in the sand saying, "Bye B****.” Marino said it also looked like someone had urinated in the spot.

The two ended up making their own version of a monolith photo and have their theories about what happened to it.

"It was you know people who didn't want it there, they didn't want people entering the desert, it's obviously causing a lot of attraction,” Marino said.

He said since sharing his video of the incident he has gotten some push back from the visit, as many people are very protective of the land.

The Bureau of Land Management put out a statement saying it was not them who removed the illegally installed structure, and they do not know who removed it. They said it was on private property so they will not be investigating.