Randi Hitchcock and her husband were sitting at High Point in Garden of the Gods last week, enjoying the solitude.

When she returned Thursday to find a 12-foot-tall blue frame drilled into the rock, it “was completely different.”

“It was just shocking and felt like a tourist attraction,” said Hitchcock, of the nonprofit UpaDowna, which promotes outdoor adventure.

The frame, intended to promote Colorado Springs as Olympic City USA, has sparked controversy since it was erected this week.

Many people are demanding it be removed, spreading their message across social media with the hashtag “TakeDownThatFrame.” The frenzy started after UpaDowna posted Facebook photos Thursday of the frame, planted near Garden of the Gods parking lot 9.

The frame was donated by local contractor GE Johnson after the idea came from the Olympic City USA task force, the city said in a statement. Janet Suthers, task force member and wife of Mayor John Suthers, presented the concept to the Parks Advisory Board last February.

Afterward, board member Charles Castle suggested that small versions of the frame be sold at the park’s visitor center, which the U.S. Olympic Committee approved.

“I looked at it on my phone, and even on a tiny screen it’s an eyesore,” said City Council President Richard Skorman.

“It stands out like a sore thumb,” Skorman said. “We have to figure out a way to maybe use it somewhere else where it doesn’t have such a huge impact on the view around it.”

Kent Obee, former chairman of the TOPS Working Committee and Parks Advisory Board, suggested an alternative location.

“I think this thing ought to be taken down, moved to the Bear Creek parcel that the city acquired in the land exchange and put up for people to have a dynamite view of the Martin Drake Power Plant,” he said.

Asked about the approval process, Obee said, “Frankly, a decision that big in an iconic park like Garden of the Gods, which we tout as second only to Central Park in terms of TripAdvisor, should have had the parks board’s approval.”

Board member Hank Scarangella said he regretted not pushing the issue to a vote. He is also president of Friends of Garden of the Gods.

Scarangella said he noticed the frame Wednesday, and it was described as “an administrative action” at a parks meeting the next day but never was an action item, as it did not merit a revision to the park’s master plan.

Parks Director Karen Palus referred questions to city communications.

“The fact that there was no public process about this project, I think, was a mistake,” Scarangella said.

“The objective is fine,” he said of the city’s aim to promote itself. “But when you put something that looks like that in the middle of such an iconic resource, and a resource that a lot of us have spent a lot of time trying to protect and enhance … That was a mistake.”

Fellow board member Ron Ilgen agreed. “Obviously, it seems like it really wasn’t taken for any consideration. It somehow just happened, a done deal,” he said. “It probably wouldn’t have hurt to have some kind of FYI that this was going on.”

Susan Davies, executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition, said the parks board was not allowed to weigh in.

“It certainly wasn’t an action item. It was more of a ‘Here’s what is going to happen’ thing,” Davies said. “I won’t comment on the frame for the Trails and Open Space Coalition, but it was not my recollection that the idea was met with unrestrained enthusiasm (by the board).”

Ddecals reading “Colorado Springs, Olympic City USA” were to be applied to the frame Friday, the city’s statement said.

The location and installation will be re-evaluated at the end of 2018, the statement said.

Reactions have been rampant.

“This is unnecessary. The beauty of that park DOES NOT need a bright blue metal frame,” reads one comment on UpaDowna’s Facebook post.

Reads another: “What an eyesore. Tragic you would plaster some piece of junk on one of earths beautiful views.”

Not everyone is lashing out against the frame, though.

A Twitter commenter posted, “Garden of the Gods is our #1 tourist attraction, and tourists will tweet/snap/post the heck out of that frame. I don’t have a problem with it.”

Comments about the frame can be left on the city’s GoCoSprings app or on its special website at www.coloradosprings.gov/gocosprings.

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