The Whitehall Ledger - Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Hikers are flooding our public lands, so I ask the question: Why can’t people just leave the poor rocks alone?

They stack them into monoliths, paint them, write rude words on them. Who looks at a magnificent 350-million-year-old rock and thinks: “That rock needs a makeover!”

First point: graffiti is deplorable. I do not want to see your name, your significant other’s name, an ode to your deceased wife (not making this up), or drawings of male genitalia.

As for rock stacks, rock cairns were designed to guide the hiker along a sketchy trail. Unofficial cairns, or “ego stacks,”...