Tree line
Hikers as Caretakers
Rocky Mountain National Park is a better place now than it was when I first hiked its trails in the 1950s. The improvement has occurred despite a huge increase in visitation of all kinds and an explosion of backcountry use. Some evidence suggests that mushrooming crowds might reverse the trend toward improvement and that the park is headed toward wilderness degradation. But the reversal is not inevitable. Better educated, more enlightened, more loving use of the land will preserve the park for future generations.
Although most of the park’s improvement should be credited to the NPS, the time has passed when we should count on rangers to look after our wilderness interests. Every day we hear more calls in more areas for government to do this and that and to relieve individuals of personal responsibility. Because we hikers and backpackers value the freedom we feel in the wilds, we must accept the responsibility for taking care of the land over which we walk in Rocky Mountain National Park and Indian Peaks Wilderness.
As caretakers, each of us must act as though the salvation of the park’s wilderness depends on us alone rather than on regulations for preserving the backcountry. Our wilderness will be preserved, in fact, only if we exceed the minimum requirements of regulations. For instance, to spread out the wear and tear of camping, the NPS requires that all backpackers obtain a permit, which allows backcountry camping at certain sites on particular dates. Favored sites fill early; call ahead for reservations (970-586-1242) between March 1 and May 15; from May 16 until October 15, you have to either write (1000 West Highway 36, Estes Park, CO 80517) or walk into the backcountry office for permits. Campfires are permitted only at sites equipped with steel fire rings. The regulations specify that only dead and down wood should be burned.
I believe there is no room left in this park’s backcountry for campfires of any kind, anywhere. Even the dead and down wood has a place in the ecosystem; each link in the chain of life is important to the whole. Research in other mountain wilderness areas has revealed that some insects that pollinate wildflowers nest in dead and down wood. When thousands of campfires consume all the dead and down wood—and insect nesting sites—within a wide radius of many campsites, they eliminate the insects and the plants as well, without a single blossom being stepped on.
The backpacking stove with liquid fuel is the hiker’s only acceptable source of fire in the wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Park and Indian Peaks. Stoves are much more convenient and clean than campfires, so virtue has its reward.
We must pack out not only all we pack in but all the litter left behind by other hikers as well. Regulations prohibit hacking trees, ditching tents, removing rocks from their natural sites, and blackening rocks in fire rings because these practices permanently inflict human presence on heavily used areas. But we should take greater care; at campsites we should wear moccasins or some other soft footwear to minimize the effect of concentrated walking.
When there is no outhouse, NPS regulations call for human waste to be buried in the zone of decay 6 inches underground and at least 200 feet from all watercourses. We should do more. We should remove the ground cover intact with a trowel before digging a hole and replace it later, as cannily as a fur trapper used to hide his cache of pelts. Really good caretakers even cultivate backcountry constipation.
The hiker’s role as caretaker of Rocky Mountain National Park extends further: We must abandon our normal reluctance to intrude on other people’s activities. When we observe other hikers acting contrary to good wilderness ethics, we must take it upon ourselves to educate the offenders in the friendliest way possible about proper backcountry behavior. For instance, we can explain how hikers must travel on trails and not make shortcuts across switchbacks, because making shortcuts destroys vegetation and causes erosion, which will wash away the trails. And we can insist that wash water for dishes, bodies, and everything else be carried away from watercourses and campsites for dumping.
We need to educate ourselves extensively about the ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park wilderness so that we will not damage it out of ignorance. We must stress to fellow hikers the delicacy of all life on this austere land. We can point out how slowly plants grow in the mountains, especially in the alpine zone. By word and example we must urge the utmost care in subjecting mountain plants to the absolute minimum of stress, for their already stressful lives can stand little more. Where trails already exist, we will stay on them. Where there are no trails, we will avoid fellow hikers’ footsteps to disperse and minimize the impact of our passing.
Hiking with dogs adds much to one’s appreciation of the mountains by providing a nonhuman viewpoint. This benefit has been praised by many wilderness advocates, such as John Muir and Enos Mills, Father of Rocky Mountain National Park. Nina Leopold, daughter of Aldo Leopold, the most influential conservationist of the twentieth century, told me that her father gained many of his insights because he was humble enough to learn from his dogs. For day hikes, leashed dogs are the best pack animals, inflicting no impact on the wilds. Alas, those dog owners who allowed their pets to run at will, chasing wildlife and intimidating other humans, caused the banning of pets from Rocky Mountain National Park trails. Dog boarding is available in Estes Park (call 970-586-9282 or 970-586-4703).
The role of caretaker demands that each hiker and backpacker make these sacrifices and more so the wilderness may live long after we are gone, just as it lived long before any people saw it. We must sacrifice out of love for the wilderness; it benefits us in many ways, and it is beautiful and needs our protection. As we urge others to practice good wilderness ethics, we must feel kindly toward them, for they are potential allies and fellow caretakers of Rocky Mountain National Park and Indian Peaks Wilderness.