Are you anxious because you do not have enough to worry about? How about piles of rocks? Stone stacking is the latest thing on Instagram and Facebook. Posters put up selfies with hashtags #RockStacks and #StoneStacking. (Facebook owns Instagram.) In your travels you’ve probably seen and marveled at cleverly-built small stone towers.
Killjoys, though, are not pleased. Zion National Park posted a photo of someone’s artistic rock piling with the caption “…leave rocks and all natural objects in place.” The post went on to say, “Stacking up stones is simply vandalism.” The problem? Moving a lot of stones can result in erosion, damage to animal ecosystems and disrupt the flow of rivers. Hikers depend on sanctioned cairns for navigation in places without clear trails. Park rangers, environmentalists, and hikers have reactions ranging from annoyance to alarm.
Vikings built stone cairns (worked better than bread crumbs) to find their way back from explorations of Finland in the ninth century and as markers for those who followed. Now tourist guides are pleading for them to be left alone and not mucked up with twenty-first century imitations.
Proponents call it artistic and meditative. Critics rail that social media has made it a global phenomenon and so reduces the amount of wilderness left in its natural state.
