Leave No Trace in the Western US

The West's landscapes are stunning precisely because they're fragile. Desert cryptobiotic soil takes centuries to recover from a single footstep. Slot canyon walls erode under the oils from human hands. Wildflower meadows get loved to death, literally. Every visitor makes a choice, and the cumulative effect of millions of choices shapes what these places look like a generation from now. Here's how to be one of the good ones.

Stick to the Trail

This sounds obvious until you're standing at a trailhead with no clear path and ten social trails fanning out ahead of you. In the desert Southwest especially, walk on rock or established dirt trail whenever possible. The dark, lumpy crust you see between plants is cryptobiotic soil — a living community of cyanobacteria, moss, lichen, and fungi that stabilizes the desert floor and makes plant life possible. It looks like dirt. It isn't. One footstep can destroy a crust that took 50 to 250 years to form. If you must step off trail, find bare sand or solid rock.

In alpine meadows, stay on trail even when it's muddy. Cutting switchbacks accelerates erosion and widens the trail footprint season by season.

Geotagging and Location Sharing

This is one of the most pressing conservation issues in the modern West. When a little-known slot canyon, arch, or wildflower bloom gets tagged on Instagram, it can go from a few dozen annual visitors to tens of thousands within a season. The physical landscape cannot absorb that change that quickly.

Before you post a location, ask whether the site is already well-known and has infrastructure to handle traffic, or whether sharing it will send unprepared visitors into a sensitive or dangerous area. Many site stewards and conservation organizations ask visitors to geotag to the nearest trailhead or town rather than the exact feature. Use your judgment. The most magical places often stay that way because people chose not to share them.

Human Waste

In backcountry and remote areas, pack it out. WAG bags (waste alleviation and gelling bags) are required in many high-use areas including popular slot canyons in Utah, some sections of the Grand Canyon, and high alpine zones where soil can't break down waste. Many trailheads now have WAG bag dispensers. Carry more than you think you need.

Where burial is permitted, follow the cathole method: dig 6–8 inches deep, at least 200 feet from water, trails, and camp. Pack out toilet paper — it does not decompose quickly in arid climates, and "Leave No Trace" means no white flags blooming off the bushes.

Fire

Check current fire restrictions before every trip. In the West, conditions change fast — a restriction-free trailhead on Monday can be under Stage 2 restrictions by the weekend. You can check at inciweb.nwcg.gov, your local national forest or BLM website, or by calling the nearest ranger station.

When fires are permitted, use existing fire rings. Keep fires small. Burn wood to ash and drown it completely — if it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave. Never burn trash. In many desert environments, even dead wood plays an ecological role; collect only what's already down and small enough to burn fully.

Wildlife

Keep your distance, always. In national parks, the official guideline is 100 yards from bears and wolves, 25 yards from all other wildlife. In practice, if your presence is changing an animal's behavior, you're too close.

Never feed wildlife. This is not a kindness — it's a death sentence. Animals that associate humans with food become aggressive and are almost always euthanized. Store food in bear canisters or hard-sided containers where required, and always hang or lock food even where it isn't. This includes toiletries, lip balm, and anything that smells.

Pack It Out

Leave every site cleaner than you found it. Pick up what you find, not just what you brought. The most impactful thing you can do at a popular trailhead is spend five minutes picking up the parking lot before you start hiking. It takes almost nothing from you and sends a message about how this place is valued.