Leave no trace.

[Yarn Cruiser]

Agreed on both of the above accounts - the pointless ones put there by wooks, knock 'em over. The ones that are necessary for navigation - leave 'em up.

When I was in the Flat Tops a few weeks ago we saw several cairns in some huge (1-2 mile wide) fields that looked very old. They were out several hundred yards from a trail and more or less in a straight line parallel to the trail. Built like 4-sided log cabins with flat stones on top, 3-4' tall. Some looked dug out under the base as if the whole thing was meant for lighting a fire under it so it would be a lantern. There's been sheepherding in that region going back to Spanish times - and there are still herds of sheep run up there with Peruvian shepherds. I wonder if they had something to do with that work. We left them though. Any idea what they were?

Something you may find intrestresing if you like to listen to podcasts. Fiber nation season 5 episode 20: The sheep and cattle wars. Covers mostly Colorado as well as Wyoming.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Something you may find intrestresing if you like to listen to podcasts. Fiber nation season 5 episode 20: The sheep and cattle wars. Covers mostly Colorado as well as Wyoming.

There's also a good Colorado Experience about the sheep and cattle range wars.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X6L7prgfec

 

[Cruisertrash]

@Yarn Cruiser @DaveInDenver saved both of those!

(Dave I will respond to our PM convo - just takes a little more thought)

 

[Yarn Cruiser]

@DaveInDenver I will be checking that out!

 

[mcgaskins]

I just saw this on Facebook which of course only adds to the confusion. My personal philosophy - I neither construct nor knock down cairns because I don't know for sure why they're there and don't want to cause any unnecessary resource damage or worse get someone lost.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

I just saw this on Facebook which of course only adds to the confusion. My personal philosophy - I neither construct nor knock down cairns because I don't know for sure why they're there and don't want to cause any unnecessary resource damage or worse get someone lost.


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I'm of the same mindset. I kinda wish that the Yosemite Park rangers hadn't even started this. While I totally agree that rock stacks piled up by douche Karens should be knocked down, the average person isn't going to be able to tell the difference between the IG Cairn stacked up a few days ago and a legit one stacked up 1,000 years ago. Caped crusaders all over the place are going to inevitably destroy ancient stacks by trying to do the right thing.

 

[nakman]

I'm of the same mindset. I kinda wish that the Yosemite Park rangers hadn't even started this. While I totally agree that rock stacks piled up by douche Karens should be knocked down, the average person isn't going to be able to tell the difference between the IG Cairn stacked up a few days ago and a legit one stacked up 1,000 years ago. Caped crusaders all over the place are going to inevitably destroy ancient stacks by trying to do the right thing.

I agree man, this could turn into another Goblin Valley here... just leave them alone- can't get more leave no trace than that.

 

[KC Masterpiece]

I'm of the same mindset. I kinda wish that the Yosemite Park rangers hadn't even started this. While I totally agree that rock stacks piled up by douche Karens should be knocked down, the average person isn't going to be able to tell the difference between the IG Cairn stacked up a few days ago and a legit one stacked up 1,000 years ago. Caped crusaders all over the place are going to inevitably destroy ancient stacks by trying to do the right thing.

I agree. Its a tough issue. Like I said im all for removing "bad" cairns but typically those are 15 miles plus from any trailhead. Not a lot of IG nonsense happening once you get that far out.

Its interesting now some NP are saying knock em down and others are asking for them to remain undisturbed. Hopefully they can focus on more education regarding cairns so visitors are more informed.

Adding to my last post here is a photo of the route on Capitol. As you can see not an area you really want to get off route as it is high consequence terrain. If you look at this photo there used to be some cairns to the left (his left) of my climbing buddy here that resulted in several deaths as people tried to descend via an alternate route that did not exist. That gulley continues to increase in pitch as it extends down the mountain. I really hope someone has removed those. Then again this is not exactly an area where people are taking IG photos of rock stacks.