I realize they might be well-meaning, but I wish people wouldn't mark up the wilderness like that. It is disrespectful to others. This is a country with folks from many religions and private points of view, and this is land that belongs to everybody. In addition, many of our public lands were sacred sites belonging to Native Americans.
Marking public land with symbols is considered vandalism; rangers and volunteers have to spend a lot of energy removing them. I was at one campsite on Cape Cod where someone had carved crosses into about 10 trees on the site where I camped. The rangers planned on tracking down the most recent occupants.
Maybe cut flowers would be an appropriate memento to mark Gabby's passing, something that, even if not strictly "no trace" as required, nature would make to disappear in the course of time.
This "leave no trace" ethic when you're in the wilderness. ....You don't leave signs that you've been there. You don't create hardship for creatures who live there (e.g. by moving rocks).
If anyone is curious about the "leave no trace" principles on public lands, here is the National Park statement on moving natural objects:
- Leave What You Find
- Preserve the past: examine, photograph, but do not touch cultural or historic structures and artifacts.
- Leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them.
- Avoid introducing or transporting non-native species.
- Do not build structures, furniture, or dig trenches.
- Source: Leave No Trace Seven Principles (U.S. National Park Service)
Perhaps I seem mean-spirited, but those rocks on the river bed belong to the universe, not to one person, not to one event.