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Druid Arch Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah 2010
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In reviewing thousands of old photos from past vacations, I find more and more pictures containing cairns -- as if they were intentionally 'photobombing' my snapshots of these amazing landscapes. The cairn in the foreground here leads to the next in the distance; as I'm guided safely through the wilderness by the hand of some unknown past builder. Did he (or she) pass here last week, or 100 years ago? Time moves slowly in the desert.
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Spooky Gulch Trail, Escalante, Utah 2015
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This is especially helpful considering how easy it could be to get hopelessly lost in the vast terrain. As pictured, it's common for cairns to be spaced so that two or more are always in view -- showing a path that might otherwise be invisible in this dry desert. Elsewhere, cairns might be farther apart, and a 'nose' (stone jutting out in one direction from the rest of the cairn) points the direction of the trail.
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