Leave the Rocks Alone — Why Rock Stacking Is a Bad Idea

Building a cairn, AKA: rock stacking, sounds like a beautiful way to commune with nature and unwind. The process doesn't involve anything more than collecting rocks of various sizes and then stacking them in a way that you find aesthetically pleasing. Most often, people will stack rocks in size order, either building them from largest to smallest or creating intricate patterns within the stack of rocks.

However, a lot of people are warning against this practice, saying that it's actually harmful.

In fact, many park professionals and outdoor experts say that you can do more damage than you can even imagine with this process.

Is rock stacking bad? Keep reading as we take a look at what the experts say, including why they claim that rock stacking can be harmful to humans and animals alike, especially when done in our national parks and wild spaces.

Sadly, the short answer is yes. Rock stacking is bad for the immediate environment. For starters, stacking rocks involves removing them from their natural environment. Sometimes this can cause that area to become unstable, and can even promote major problems. For example, the South African National Parks blog warns visitors to avoid rock stacking on its beaches, claiming that removing the rocks from the shore will cause instability and can even promote erosion.

Then, there's the impact this has on wildlife. The Ausable Freshwater Center says that rock stacking can harm animals, especially when people are sourcing the rocks from the water. This is because aquatic life needs those rocks to lay eggs. Removing them can disrupt those egg clutches or open them up to predators.

And in some other instances, removing rocks from the river can also change the waterflow, which can wash away the eggs that still remain hidden in other rocky outcroppings.

A lot of river rocks are also covered in other living things, like algae, which eliminates an important food source for the aquatic animals when they are removed from the water. Not only that, but the algae and moss that call those rocks home can also die off once they're removed from the water, which highlights the extent of the damage that can be done to the ecosystem when you take rocks from where they belong to build a cairn.

You may be surprised to know that rock stacking isn't just frowned upon because of the environmental impact, but it can also hurt humans. That's because some parks use cairns as trail markers to let people know where they are. These rocky markers are decades old in some cases, and many people rely on them to navigate some of our largest national parks. Building unsanctioned rock stacks can confuse travelers and even cause them to get lost in the wilderness.

Additionally, large cairns can become unstable, especially if they aren't built by experts. If one of these were to collapse while someone was nearby, they could suffer grave injury. The remoteness of their location could exacerbate any injuries, turning a wonderful day in the great outdoors into a massive nightmare.

In short, while rock stacking looks like a fun and harmless way to connect with nature, it's one that's better left to the pros.