We facilitated a Leave No Trace Trainer Course in Acadia National Park earlier this year. It was a great course with lots of discussions about outdoor ethics! One conversation that came up during the principle of "Leave What You Find" was the practice of rock stacking. It was the first time that this issue had ever been brought up during one of our courses and opinions ranged from finding rock stacks beautiful to offensive. At the time, we had not given much thought to the carefully balanced rocks we had occasionally seen along trails.
So, why months later are we still contemplating the question of rock stacking? Well, we recently had the opportunity to hike in Bryce Canyon National Park and came across a portion of trail that was covered with thousands of rocks balancing upon each other. The sight immediately brought to mind the "Leave What You Find" conversation we had back in Acadia National Park and we could see why there had been such varied feelings towards the activity. While one artfully balanced rock stack can be quite beautiful, the impact of seeing these stacks in such a large quantity was somewhat disconcerting.
Have you seen rock stacks on your local trails? If so, what are your feelings about the practice of rock stacking?
so this comment comes from a "rock stacker" that does makes these on a regular basis...sometimes in large arrays such as the picture above...i guess i can understand how some ppl may be offended by them in that it could be seen as NOT leaving things as you find them...however, considering that the majority of them are built in fields of fragmented rock, i would suspect it has negligable if any negative environmental effects. as long as the stackers stay true to the use of balance instead of glue...and use enough common sense to keep the building away from slopes to prevent the rocks falling down toward ppl...bottom line is they are a very small manipulation of what is already there...a natural, completely IMPERMANENT art. free and meditative. at least for me....95% of my encounters with passers by while stacking have been positive in the sense that they are somewhat artistic...i mostly stick to building them on creeks where there is such a high level of erosion that hopefully it should be offensive to anyone....but i guess there will always be whistleblowers..but anyway...interesting topic! i just stumbled upon ur blog thru google images...:)
ReplyDelete*should NOT be offensive...:)
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