Re: Cairn garden in Arches National park...

Near Balanced Rock... I destroyed it! All of it! I have never seen that before, but then again, I haven't been here since 2007 and never in summer. Maybe this happens every year, and at the end of the busy season, rangers knock them down, I do not know, but I did my good deed for today!

Did you take a picture? We were in Arches two years ago in August and did not see any cairn gardens in the park.

It is a common practice in one area on the trail to Upper Emerald Pool In Zion, where people make them on top of a balanced flat boulder but there are never many of them and they are made of very small rocks. The ones we see in the summer are always gone when we are there in November. Since small rocks are used, they probably just eventially fall over.

It seems to be a practice that has increased over the years in many parks. There are many of them near Mirror Lake in Yosemite now.

Yes I snapped a couple photos. The one at mirror lake infuriates me. It is much too big to dismantle without trucks. Damn FOOLS.

I have not been up to Mirror Lake for 2 years and the time I went there were not that many, maybe 10. I have heard that there are hundreds now.

I see them all the time along Tioga Road. I stop and knock them down. One idiot put one on above the road so that when it fell it would send rocks flying into the roadway. They are graffitti, not art.

The ones that were on top of Half Dome in early July somehow disappeared between when I got on top, and when I left.

It's supposed to be a natural environment!

Afterwards there was a lot more habitat for the critters up there that like rocks to hide under.

There was a massive cairn garden with hundreds of them on the Queens Garden trail in Bryce NP which I came across back in June. It ruined that portion of the hike for me. It was late in the day and I didn't have an hour to knock them all down, but I hope someone does eventually.

I really don't know what these people are thinking, but I am glad to hear some of you are knocking them down too!

The problem is that one person will do it and then another person will walk by and think it is "neat" and make one and so on, so on..........until there are masses of them. I guess you could consider it another form of graffiti where people have to mark their way like dogs. But at least it is one that is easier to remove than paint or scratches in the rocks would be. When brings me to why do people deface petroglyphs with their own names?

Experienced climbers, hikers, and backpackers overwhelmingly dislike either cairns or ducks on trails including this person. Experienced hikers don't need rock piles to show them the way on trails. Neither do they on cross country routes want ducks piled by amateurs whatever their skill level as in any case they prefer to read routes on their own simply using maps and compass. Of course moving rocks about along trails makes a landscape less visually natural.

But the casual park visitor sees a cairn, sees rocks laying about a landscape like are abundant some places like the Delicate Arch Trail and immediately that sparks their creative urges especially those in groups who are challenged as a team to do something more impressive. Then when any kids come by, they go berserk of course running about and yelling as piling up rocks is great fun. So that triggers and teaches wrong behavior. If it was just limited to a few areas, that would be fine. However some apparently start to consider themselves something of a creative cairn piling artist and much like compulsive urban graffiti paint artists increasingly get those same urges whenever on any trail just like a dog that drank too much water and then is being walked and then stops at every tree, post, utility pole, and fire hydrant around a block.

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2012 11:13AM by DavidSenesac.