Are we ruining the wilderness?
This article points out the damage that can happen when a once isolated "secret" location gets massive attention.
Are we guilty of this as well? I hope not. You will notice that we never claim a single destination is a (or THE) "must see" bucket list location. There are far too many great places in the Sierra for that, and we haven't seen all of them ourselves, despite having hiked a few thousand miles in these mountains.
But there is no question that some of our posts have generated increased traffic for some areas of the Sierra. It's a double-edged sword. We want more people to experience these wonderful places so that they will help protect them and vote for those who will protect them. But more people means more impact on the wilderness.
We do stress the principles of Leave No Trace, and hope that you are rigorous in following them. But more traffic means more impact, and not all of those people follow LNT as religiously as we do. Help them, if you can.
We will continue to post about places we've seen and loved, adding to the huge list of day hikes and backpacking trips we've taken and recommend. But we won't insist that one is the best. And we'll hope that people who visit our site go beyond the goal of that single supposedly "iconic" Instagram photo, and enjoy every corner of the Sierra. They all have their charms.
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