What's with all those stacks of stones in the woods?

[Ptah]

Cairns. You've seen them: Those weird stacks of balanced stones on a trail or in a field. Sometimes they serve a purpose. Most times they're just there. Now some say it's time to kick cairns. Literally.


A cairn on a trail near Sedona

(Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)


It would be hard to follow Southwestern trails without cairns. These little piles of rock help guide us along washes and into canyons, across folds of slickrock and timeless, high desert landscapes.

But as Robyn Martin wrote recently in High Country News, a different form of rock stacking has begun to creep into public lands.

She’s not talking about the cairns you find on your favorite trail. She’s talking about stone circles and stacks of rock that have sprung up along streambeds and other places. You may have seen them on the trail or in a state or national park: little stacks of stones, precariously balanced — some even artistic, perhaps, but clearly not left there by nature.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/best-reads/2015/10/23/cairns-stone-rock-stacks-sedona/32413703/

[frazzled]

1. Before we kick the cairns ...

can we kick those sites (usually news) that block out the content until you've answered a question? I wanted to read about this, but I refuse to answer a question first.

[Ptah]

2. Thanks for kicking this.

[BobTheSubgenius]

3. We were seeing a lot of inukshuks around here

(Victoria BC) a few years ago, but I hadn't realized that I haven't seen one for some time until this article.

There was no particular pattern to where they appeared, unlike these cairns, though. I just love life's little mysteries.

I don't understand the intense vitriol about them, though. "At best pointless...."???

[Ptah]

4. Perhaps this image illustrates some peoples' objection:

[LiberalElite]

5. Now that's at least one cairn too many... nt