(NEXSTAR) — You may have been on a hike in, say, one of America’s national parks and seen bountiful nature — tall sequoias, dazzling waterfalls, a breathtaking valley of flowers. And then you come upon what appears to be a pile of rocks.
Your first instinct may be to kick it down, like National Park Service rangers have asked of visitors before. Before you put boot to rocks, though, you may want to consider your surroundings.
Visitors to the national parks are often encouraged to “leave no trace” when recreating, meaning there should be no sign you traversed or camped in an area. While that may conjure images of picking up your trash and leaving nature as untouched as possible, that also includes not leaving a mark on the terrain, like stacked piles of rocks.
This national park is 95 percent underwater: Here’s what it’s hidingIt may be satisfying and require extra patience on your part, but piling rocks can be detrimental to the environment (especially to the bugs and reptiles that live beneath the rocks) and distract from the views others are hoping to enjoy.
Not every rock tower — or cairn — is bad, however.
"When used appropriately, rock cairns are great for navigation, safety, and delineating a new or hard-to-follow trail," officials at Yosemite National Park previously explained.
There's the Bates cairn, which looks a bit like a bridge, and conical cairns, which are more like the towers you would expect to see.
A Bates cairn, commonly referred to as an inukshuk, that has been used by the Inuit people of Canada to mark high points of land, stands on the summit of Pike's Peak on Thursday, May 25, 2006, near Manitou Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)You may have encountered such navigational cairns at Acadia National Park, for example. There, cairns help to keep hikers on the trail, and off the delicate nature along the trail, especially during weather that can reduce visibility.
Utah’s Canyonlands National Park also depends on cairns to help hikers through its terrain and off the delicate biological soil crust. The National Park Service says you'll likely come across ranger-maintained cairns in Zion, El Malpais, and Hawaii Volcanoes.
If you’re uncertain about whether you’re looking at an official cairn or one constructed in violation of the “leave no trace” guidelines, rangers at Canyonlands have advice.
“If you stand at the base of one rock cairn, you should be able to see the next one out in the distance. Don’t forget to look up and down!”
Photos: What visiting the national parks used to look likeRegardless of whether the park uses cairns or not, the NPS says that if you encounter a cairn, you shouldn’t disturb it by knocking it over or adding to it. And don’t consider building your own, either.
“If an intentional cairn is tampered with or an unauthorized one is built, then future visitors may become disoriented or even lost,” the NPS explained.
Similar rules apply outside of the national parks. Some places, like Colorado's Pikes Peak, use cairns to help hikers navigate otherwise difficult-to-mark paths. If you're uncertain about a cairn, don't destroy it, and don't add to it.
If you're unsure if a cairn is real, officials recommend checking local guidelines, speaking with a ranger or another hiker, or utilizing a map.
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