See a rock cairn? Knock it down. It's vandalism.

 To the ancient peoples, these stack of rocks was used as a navigational markings to let themselves and 

others know that they are embarking on the correct path.

 Rock Stacking or Cairn originates from a Gaelic term meaning "heaps of stones".

 

 Prehistoric Scottish people may have coined the term and used these rocks to mark trails across lush 

grassland and rolling 

hills of the Lowlands and deep glens of the HighLands. In the Andes Mountains and Mongolia, rock 

cairns were used to identify which routes were safe to take to villages. In Canada, cairns are called 

Inukshuks and are used for hunting and navigational aids. These are all over the Arctic and act as 

"helpers' to the Inuits.

 

"Many other inuksuit (inukshuk) are used as navigational aids. They indicate the best route home, the 

position of the mainland from a distant island, the direction of a significant place inland, such as a 

ceremonial site, major transition points between water and land routes and locations where fog is 

prevalent between islands. They can also act as astronomical sight lines, lining up the viewer to the 

pole star and the mid-winter moon." - Inuksuk - The Canadian Encyclopedia

  Nowadays, hikers are using it as a prop to post on their social media and call it "artistic expression" or 

a kind of meditative practice that they use for posturing and to share to their followers as new-age 

wisdom. 

 Yosemite Park bans people from stacking rocks and considers this as vandalism.

"The Park emphasizes that such cairns are an indicator of human impact and can disrupt the habitat of 

small insects, reptiles and microorganisms that call the wilderness home. By dismantling rock cairns, 

visitors, visitors contribute to the restoration of the natural wilderness."

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