Stacking Rocks

[Paul Wagner]

Sacrificial first post

[Paul Wagner]

In case you were wondering.  We’ve seen these “art installations” all over the parks we visit.  And while every once in a while one seems slightly charming, the absolute epidemic of stacked rocks all over the place has quickly become a real eyesore.

When we were hiking on our recent trip to the Southwest, we noted this very clear sign that made it apparent:  stacked rocks are graffiti.  This is especially important in the Southwest, where geoglyphs and other rock installations can be thousands of years old, and indicate real archeological importance.  Scrawling all over that with your own clever creations is graffiti, nothing more or less.

Here’s the sign:

[Pedestrian]

I kick the ducks down every time I encounter them. In the past couple of years I see them more frequently on trails I hike in the Bay area.

 

 

 

[Kattt]

Humans stacking rocks. What will be next ???

I do not mind them at all. Of all things people do out there, including graffiti,  making trails and building things in parks….this one is so old and human that I can handle it no problem. Maybe go hiking where there are less people.

 

 

[jscott]

Steve Roper hates ducks (as in three small rocks stacked on each other) and kicks them over when he finds them on the high route and elsewhere. As someone who gets lost easily and never carried a gps device except in winter, I like ducks. Worst case, I know that someone else had made the same bad navigation decisions as me. But always the ducks were in fact an indicator of my being on the proper route.

Yes I carried a topo but I sucked at using one properly. Roper loves the adventure of finding a route as if for the first time by yourself. I love knowing that I’m not climbing to the wrong pass–that is, no pass at all.

Day hiking at Island of  the Sky near Moab decades ago I found out that ducks and/or branches were the only real indication of a route. Flash floods take care of many of these.

edit: I’m not at all sure if duck are what are being referenced by the OP. And if they are, I may be out of date about an epidemic. In any case gps may have made ducks obsolete. Although I still don’t like carrying electronics on a trip.

[Chris H]

I fear that Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid are going to be a tougher nut to crack…

[Ken Thompson]

So just anybody is allowed outside?

[Franco Darioli]

Jeffrey,

I think Paul was talking about this type :

not simple  cairns.

[jscott]

Ohhhh…

Never mind.

[Pedestrian]

We all understand ducks (cairns) placed in remote areas where the trail (if it exists) is indistinct; the OP was referring to ducks, like I see on nearby trails, placed just for someone’s idle entertainment. Those are the ones I see as unnecessary. Roper is a purist and he might kick down any ducks he sees –  I wouldn’t disturb ducks in remote areas if they serve as a navigation aid to some hiker.

 

 

[jscott]

So…is it a duck if it’s not meant to indicate a route? I would think that this is an essential part of the definition. Otherwise it’s a pile o’rocks.

[Paul Wagner]

I agree, Jeffrey.  I would even add that a duck is two to three rocks.  Towering pikes of rocks, even when marking a trail, are unnecessary.  And therefore clearly violate LNT principles…

[Jeffs Eleven]

All Cairns and ducks are just signs of people with bad psychic navigational skills.

[David Thomas]

“Worst case, I know that someone else had made the same bad navigation decisions as me.”

But at least in that case, there’ll be some hiker jerky or some bones to gnaw on.

[David Thomas]

I’d call two or three stones used to mark a trail a “duck”.

A large pile of stones, 2-3-4 feet high, marking a trail or a junction a “cairn”.

My first time in the White Mountains of NH, the fog made for visibility of 5-10 feet and the ducks were really helpful.  Even more so after just an inch of snow fall.

Artistically stacked rocks:  Rock art?  Rock sculptures? Stacked rocks?

[jscott]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_a_Duck%3F

Leave it to the Marx bros. to explain everything.

[MW]

I loath these things. Some are balanced stacked rocks, but others are just people making rock piles or walls.

I can understand it in remote areas where they are showing the trail. But I’m encountering them along well formed trails where there is zero chance of wandering off trail.  Thick, spiky vegetation on both sides of the trail, and/or a well worn track.

Some trails are turning into long runs of stacked or piled rocks. Its horrible to look at.  A couple of trails I avoid now as there are so many, its like walking between fallen down fences. But its appearing on other trails now as well.  I think I’m on the losing team in wanting this vandalism to stop.

[Kattt]

^^^ “vandalism”

Lol

[Ken Thompson]

I wish people wouldn’t do all sorts of things. This seems not so egregious.

Better this than paint.

[Matthew / BPL]

I’m too lazy to spend time searching for a credible reference but I’m under the impression that a cairn is a stack of rocks marking a navigational point whereas a duck is a subtype of cairn that has a horizontal slab indicating a direction.

[Franco Darioli]

Talking about definitions, once upon the time egregious meant outstanding, in a good sense.

In Italian it still means excellent, or something to be admired ( comes from the Latin term that meant standing out from the flock ..)

[Arthur]

The perfect cairn.  Amateur Stonehenge.

 

[Art …]

I would go with the term suggested by the OP … Art Installations.

so the question is, at what point in time do these things transform from graffiti to historical art that must be preserved ? should I destroy the 2-300 year old Art Installations of the locals, or the 1,000 year old ones ?

personally I’m much more annoyed seeing back country travelers toting around electronic devices … hmmm, maybe these things are really just disguised cell towers, that would make them ok …

[Lester Moore]

On popular trails I take rock art as a benign and often useful given. It’s much less detracting than used toilet paper strewn about, eroded switchback shortcuts, abandoned lit campfires, loud or yelling hikers, drones, dogs jumping/scratching/slobbering all over you and blaring music.

[Ralph Burgess]

I don’t know about the rock art aspect, but the question of cairns as route markers is very much context dependent.   Steve Roper doesn’t like them because in open terrain in the Sierra Nevada, often no single route is necessary except at passes – which generally mark themselves – and he fears that cairns may lead to everyone following the same line, leading to the establishment of use trails that will scar the open tundra.   A converse example is Canyonlands, where extensive cairned routes are actively maintained by rangers to keep hikers to established routes (often on slickrock where no trail would show) to avoid random wandering that would destroy the cryptobiotic soil crust.

People have differing opinions about when/whether cairns are appropriate, but I think if you’re going to place them you should at least use common sense – don’t cairn a route unless is really necessary, and don’t cairn a route unless you’ve travelled it 3 or 4 times and you know it well.  It’s so common to see idiot-cairns dotting the landscape where the thought process has been:   I haven’t seen a cairn for a quarter mile and that section was quite tricky, so I’d better build one.   No, dumbass – the reason you haven’t seen a cairn for a quarter mile is because you’re off the route.    If in doubt, leave it to the rangers.

 

 

[Author]

Posts