Comments on: So Much for ‘Leave No Trace’

By: effingrockstackingmorons

effingrockstackingmorons — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:52:41 +0000

Any is too many.

Unless it is built by a ranger to mark a trail it is vandalism. There’s no debate to be had.

Comparisons to sandcastles are useless and moronic. Children’s sandcastles erode with the tide and create no impact on the environment.

Rock stacks never erode and may take seasons, decades, millenia, eons… just to fall over. Removing rocks from and/or stacking rocks in a river bed and/or soil has a huge effect on erosion.

If you’re too stupid to figure out what “leave no trace means” you don’t deserve to share the wilderness with those who do.

I don’t want to spend my hard earned time off traveling into public wilderness to see what some ass clown considers art or personal expression. Express yourself on your own effing property, asshole.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:33:15 +0000

Here raise my taxes so the NPS can now pay someone to go tear these apart and restore the area to what it was before someone decided nature needed “improving”. Not like I don’t pay enough taxes already.

Leave it like you found it. Nature is doing a fine job by herself.

By: Edie Howe

Edie Howe — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:19:32 +0000

Kicking over rock towers, kicking down sandcastles. Discuss.

By: Edie Howe

Edie Howe — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:12:57 +0000

Loyd,
To truly understand erleichda, read “Jitterbug Perfume”.

I don’t have the patience to build stuff like these towers. Nor do I want to spend the time deconstructing them. I’d be more inclined to appreciate the patience it took to build them, maybe snap a few pics, and then continue on my way.

Sure, it may not be LNT, but it’s way less objectionable than screaming kids or dogs taking a dump–both of which make me long for an Uzzi.

There’s way worse on the trail to get all het-up about. Erleichda.

By: Moedad

Moedad — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:43:40 +0000

The stacks are confined to the east end of the old Mirror Lake parking lot, right at the top of the granite steps leading down to the lake. I was there on Tuesday the 15th. Everybody seemed to be very surprised to see them, and while there were comments from some who thought they were inappropriate, nobody was kicking them over. One woman seemed ready to challenge folks that were questioning this expression of art (for lack of a better word).

By: Rowe

Rowe — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:09:07 +0000

I think its beautiful.

By: John Wall

John Wall — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:01:49 +0000

Were these made at the base of the recent rockslide?

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:20:01 +0000

It’s ugly – Disneyland sculpture. Don’t people go to places like Yosemite to see what the elements have created, not what people have created? At least the elements can be counted on to knock it down again at some point! But more importantly, let’s not forget – all those rocks are used as shelter and foraging places for many creatures – insects, lizards, small mammals. How many of those had their environments disrupted, or were trodden on, injured or killed, by the feet stomping all over the place in this demolition derby.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:15:08 +0000

Mirror Lake gets more visitors in any given summer than the entire office building I work in. It’s hardly “wilderness”.

The cairns don’t bother me. Trash, carved trees and benches, Sharpie tagging on the granite — that’s bothersome. Stacking some rocks? Hardly registers.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:00:00 +0000

As an employee of Leave No Trace, I have recently seen this discussion before: http://leavenotracecommunity.blogspot.com/2010/04/tolerance-levels.html

Certainly the location plays a big role in our perception upon “discovering” such a find. I have seen one such rock stack garden in a center median that struck me as absolutely beautiful. Not so sure I would think the same at Mirror Lake.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:46:27 +0000

Just head over there and knock em all down. Easy as that! Hopefully people will continue to knock em down.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:02:44 +0000

enlightenment?

By: Edie

Edie — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:47:16 +0000

Just one word: Erleichda.

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:33:48 +0000

Ridiculous. This should be considered vandalism, just like graffiti and tagging. It ruins the wilderness experience and should be stopped. I’d knock all of these down, and would feel like I was doing a good service for fellow visitors.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:47:56 +0000

Yes there’s a religion where offerings are wrapped in banana leaves and then it’s placed under a rock. Local indigenous peoples don’t have such a practice that I know of. I suspect this was one person doing a couple then other people saw it and decided to add to it making a meme.