Leave No Trace Hot Spot

Students from Page High School scrape and buff away graffiti.

NPS/ Amanda Rich

Horseshoe Bend Overlook at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was selected as a 2019 Hot Spot by Leave No Trace. Subaru/Leave No Trace Team members traveled to Glen Canyon for part one of their service work and education outreach. A short video titled Leave No Trace at Horseshoe Bend shares the best ways to practice the seven Leave No Trace principles during your visit.

In 2021, the team returned to complete the second half of the program. The Leave No Trace team worked with Glen Canyon to provide area visitors, land managers, student volunteers and the local community with information, service work and education to reduce impacts in the outdoors and to recreate responsibly. Check the Leave No Trace website to learn more about the Horseshoe Bend Revisit .

 

Leave No Trace selects Hot Spot locations each year: popular outdoor areas across the country that have experienced heavy recreational use and human-created impacts, including excessive trash, damage to vegetation, trail erosion, disturbance to wildlife and more. 

“Hot Spot areas are damaged but can recover again with a motivated community and a comprehensive infusion of Leave No Trace programs” said Dana Watts, Executive Director of Leave No Trace. “By identifying and working with Hot Spots and their communities across the country, Leave No Trace can rapidly move toward recovering and protecting the places we all cherish at a time when the outdoors has proven more critical than ever,” according to Erin Collier, one of the Subaru/Leave No Trace Team members who will be onsite to lead the work.

"Horseshoe Bend Overlook at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is internationally known for its scenic view of the Colorado River. Our educational partnership with Leave No Trace aims to give our park staff and local community members additional skills to help park visitors leave this site and other public lands as good, or better, than they found them. "

- Billy Shott, Superintendent, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

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Graffiti Removal at Horseshoe Bend Overlook

Partnering up with Page High School, Leave No Trace and park staff scrubbed off graffiti at Horseshoe Bend. The student government group, Devils in Disguise, hit the trail early in the morning to learn about Leave No Trace and the seven principles. Students tested their knowledge as they built a timeline of commonly found litter and their decomposition times.

With new knowledge in hand and a passion to clean up this scenic site, students and staff spent the next few hours scraping scrubbing and buffing away obnoxious graffiti left behind by previous visitors. They removed about 1000 square feet of graffiti found along the trail and carved deep into the sandstone. Graffiti is unsightly and takes away from the beauty of Horseshoe Bend, we all need to leave places better than we found them. Remember to take only pictures and leave only footprints.

 

• Students gear up for graffiti removal

• Learning trash decomposition times with LNT

• Hiking up the trail at Horseshoe Bend

• Brushing and buffing away graffiti

• Scraping graffiti with a view!

• A job well done!

 

Duration:

1 minute, 54 seconds

Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics spent some time at Horseshoe Bend for a 2019 hotspot. Learn from Ranger Edmonia how you can apply their seven principles to your next visit to this amazing place.

Leave No Trace