Rock Balancing

[hunter63]

Looking through Crash's fantastic pic's....saw a pic of a small rock stack, next to a stream.

Crash's Pic....
Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Been seeing these showing up, mostly along a roads...and I guess is considered an art form by some...and a disturbing eyesore to others...that want a pristine wilderness...."Leave no trace".

But National Parks and possibility state parks really do not allow disturbing the flora and fauna in the parks...as just moving these may uncover small animals bugs and plants......or at least that's the theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_b..._natural_areas

Personally I would have a heck of a time balancing just two rocks.....so not for me......and I guess if I found one in the wild....most likely just look and say.....Cool....and move on.

I don't believe thay would last vey long?
What do y'all think?

[crashdive123]

I think they are kind of interesting when I come across them. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there was some sort of flower on top of that pile. While my wife and I looked at it we were wondering out loud what it might have been placed there for. Maybe a tribute to a fallen friend/family member? Maybe just boredom? Either way, it made use wonder.

[finallyME]

Out here in the west, when you are hiking peaks....you see them all the time. They are called cairns and used for marking a trail. You can't "blaze" the trail because generally you are above treeline. Some of them get really big because everyone wants to put a rock on it when they pass, so over the course of many years, many rocks get added. I know this isn't isolated to the west.

[Williepete]

My wife and I saw many of them in Alaska when we had our land tours from a cruise some years back. We of course wondered about them, many being interesting designs.

Bill

[natertot]

I was curious about it all myself. Did a little googlefu and came across this article. Interesting information and perspective.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-call-...e-stones-alone

[hunter63]

I was curious about it all myself. Did a little googlefu and came across this article. Interesting information and perspective.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-call-...e-stones-alone

Obviously written by some one that has a problem standing up, let alone balancing two rock together.

But this does seem to be a 50/50 opinion issue.......can't really say if they bother me too much as I haven't seen them in the wild...most of the places I go...are hunting places.

One our trips across the state, there is one farm that has some pretty large rock stacks, as well as a couple of fountains.

Another place has two stacks on the ends of his driveway....and I was wondering how they made it thru the winter snow plowing?
Turns out the guy drilled a 1/2 hole thru the sandstone and the stacked them on a piece of re-bar, cemented into the ground....LOL...(kinda cheating)

Wonder how may people have tried to kick it over.....There are people that do stuff like that....so I guess its a wash.

[1stimestar]

We do something similar to mark trails and we also make inukshuk which is a pile of rocks to look like a human. It mostly means, I was here. Look them up. They are pretty cool and fun to make.

[Wildthang]

I do it to make old farts stop, look, and go into a state of wonder.

[Rick]

I have enough trouble balancing ME without having to worry about rocks. And us old farts lost our state of wonder eons ago. We often have to look at the atlas just to make certain we're in the right state.

[hunter63]

Is that wonder...... or just a WTF moment.....

"PapPaw....what's are those rocks over there?"
"Where?"
"Over there PapPaw....see....."
"Ah...Hippies, I guess"

[MrFixIt]

Piles of rocks in the forests and fields here generally indicate property boundaries.
Also used to mark trails as finallyME stated.

[Mannlicher]

when I saw that picture, I figured it would cause a firestorm of back and forth. I see nothing wrong with stacking a few pebbles, but I know other folks take a different view.

[LowKey]

Superglue works. Sort of.
My dad built a miniature one of those things out of pebbles and shells from places he had been with mom and he put it on the back shelf of the base stone at the cemetery. I rebuild it every other year or so for them.