Unpopular opinion: Cairns on backpacking routes need to stop.

They mess with the natural landscape and can lead people off course. It's better to use maps and leave no trace.

3 comments

3 Comments

That point about cairns "leading people off course" really hits home. I've seen piles of rocks that just mark someone's lunch spot, not the actual trail. Do you think there's a difference between these random stacks and the official, maintained cairns that park services sometimes build?

amy_cooper311mo ago

But why build random ones at all if they just confuse people?

the_shane1mo ago

Once saw a guy stack coffee cups in the office like a cairn, totally threw off the cleaning crew. They thought it was some new system for empty mugs. Makes you wonder why people feel the need to leave marks everywhere.