Yosemite National Park is asking visitors to stop building towering piles of rocks in the park and knock over any they may come across.
The park posted a video on social media showing a wilderness restoration ranger knocking over one particular rock tower – known as a rock cairn – that was as tall as an adult.
"According to Leave No Trace ethics when we recreate in wilderness spaces, our goal is to leave no signs of our impact on the land and respect other creatures living in it," the park wrote in the post. "Unfortunately, this dramatically oversized cairn is a mark of human impact and is distracting in a wilderness setting. Building rock cairns also disturbs small insects, reptiles, and microorganisms that call the underside home!"
The park said rock cairn building should be left to rangers and trail workers. When created appropriately, rock cairns serve as a navigational tool for hikers, especially on new trails or ones that are tricky to follow.
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