You know those fun man-made rock stacks you see out in the wild? There’s a good chance you know them as rock cairns. Maybe you’ve seen a bunch of them in one specific area, maybe you’ve seen them marking a trail, or maybe they’ve appeared as decoration in a point of interest you’ve visit. While they look pretty cool, there’s a bit of controversy surrounding these man-made rock formations, and it’s important to understand before heading into the wilderness.
In several National and State Parks, rock cairns exist as trail markings, making their existence quite important to visitors. In Acadia National Park, for example, the specific “Bates Cairn”, designed and created by Waldron Bates, have been around for over a century. These unique trail markings are found in El Malpais National Monument and Hawai’i Volcanoes National Monument, as well.
A ton of parks and monuments don’t use them as trail markers, though. In those areas, rock cairns are usually made by unauthorized visitors and are rarely ever welcome. Yosemite National Park, for example, recently asked visitors to dismantle any rock stacks they find while visiting.
“Why did Wilderness Restoration Rangers dismantle this rock cairn? According to Leave No Trace ethics when we recreate in wilderness spaces, our goal is to leave no signs of our impact on the land and respect other creatures living in it. Unfortunately, this dramatically oversized cairn is a mark of human impact and is distracting in a wilderness setting. Building rock cairns also disturbs small insects, reptiles, and microorganisms that call the underside home!” – Yosemite National Park
So, what are the guidelines for treating rock cairns throughout the United States (and the world, for that matter)? Here’s a bit of information from the National Park Service to help you in the wild:
1. Don’t tamper with existing rock cairns
Obviously in the case of Yosemite National Park, visitors have been asked to take them down, so go crazy if you’re there. But, in most cases, don’t mess with them unless specifically asked. Even if you’re pretty sure it isn’t official, you could be destroying a necessary trial marker, making it difficult and dangerous to navigate through an area.
2. Don’t build your own rock cairn
Building an unauthorized rock cairn is a terrible move for several reasons. First of all, it can create confusion in relation to actual rock cairns. It’s pretty easy to get lost if there are a bunch of different stacks headed in differed directions when you’re supposed to be using them for navigation. Secondly, it’s bad for the environment. There are a ton of animal species that rely on rocks for protection and shelter. Moving those around and making them inaccessible to wildlife can kill. Finally, it’s just inconsiderate. Nobody wants to go to a state or national park to see evidence of human life, we go there to experience what the world is like without us. Don’t build rock cairns and don’t let your kids build rock cairns.
3. Don’t add to existing cairns.
For the same reason that removing existing cairns is a bad idea, adding rocks to existing cairns is a bad idea. The formations are built (when built properly) in a specific way to ensure stability and a long life. Adding more rocks can cause them to collapse, bringing along the same problems of danger and difficulty.
Please, practice leave no trance. That includes these rock stacks, as they essentially amount to graffiti. Just, be a good person. It’s not that hard.
Related: Zion National Park Says Stacking Rocks Amounts To Graffiti
Featured Image Credit: Matt Gross on Unsplash