I can’t fathom what’s wrong with some people. You visit a stunningly beautiful and pristine park and want to deface it?
This lady was dumb enough to post pictures to some popular hiking web sites. That didn’t end well. Hikers respect unspoiled terrain and leave it just like they found it. I’ve been fortunate and had the pleasure of hiking four of these trails. Each trip in a different year. This lady hit all seven in 26 days. She couldn’t have spent much time actually hiking at each one.
**I totally agree. See graffiti or other damage in a park? Take photos and report it. I’ve picked up trash and carried it out of the park a couple times. **
I rather see them sandblast and remove the paint. Nature will soon weather the rock face and make it natural again. The paint is more obnoxious and invites other people to tag the rock.
This deserves to be in the Pit. What a piece of shit.
I still feel bad about the time I was in Yellowstone (perhaps 12 years ago), and when I pulled something out of my pocket, a candy bar wrapper came with it. It immediately blew off the trail and I couldn’t do anything about it–Yellowstone is a place where you definitely do not want to go off-trail. Since then I have always carried out more trash than I carried in on hikes or other excursions. Bits of litter here and there are understandable, and probably mostly accidental, so I don’t mind–but deliberate defacement is inexcusable.
The “ironic punishment” part of my brain says that we should deface her forehead with a tattoo saying “I’m a piece of human excrement with no consideration of nature or other humans.”
It is ‘arty’ vandalism. She’s obviously trying to get herself a reputation as an ‘edgy’ artist who ‘breaks conventions’ and ‘uses nature as her muse’ and (fill in your own rubbish cliche).
It’s worked for several in the past. Publicity and celebrity is far more important than quality in becoming a commercial artist.
She probably wanted to be caught. Not really much point if she wasn’t.
When I was hiking through Capitol Reef National Park several years ago, I encountered a couple with a young girl. The girl had a small bouquet of wild flowers in her hand, and was actively looking for more. Capital Reef is an extremely arid environment, and plants have a really tough time surviving, and they need to flower to increase the odds of reproducing. The flowers I saw, even away from the little girl, were few and far between. I tried explaining this to the parents, but they became very insistent that their little brat had every goddamn right to pick any goddamn flowers she goddamn wanted, and that I should mind my goddamn business. The father pointed out that if the flowers had such a hard time surviving, perhaps they had no right to be there, unlike his precious little snowflake.
That family was defacing the park in a manner comparable to using spray paint on the rocks. I did report them to the rangers; hope they were caught.
I wish there were stronger penalties for this sort of thing.
2 years probation, a rather hefty fine and she’s been banned from all federal Parks for the duration of her probation. Not nearly hefty enough of a penalty. I’m thinking deportation and exile.
Instead of full banishment I think an appropriate punishment might be that she be required to go to each of those parks to give talks at evening campfire programs. She would have to explain why she did it and apologize directly to the park-going public.
I recall there is a big boulder that settlers in the Wagon trains signed. It was shown in a documentary that I saw. It had a bunch of signature’s and dates. The best known is Independence Rock.
Otherwise the boulders out West should stay clean and free of any graffiti.
Found this with Google. Item 6 discusses register rocks on the Oregon trail
While I despise people who deface wilderness (even moreso when it’s for crass careerism as in this case), occasionally I am willing to overlook the offense. Consider the case below:
Hikers respect unspoiled terrain and leave it just like they found it. I’ve been fortunate and had the pleasure of hiking four of these trails. Each trip in a different year. This lady hit all seven in 26 days. She couldn’t have spent much time actually hiking at each one.