If you don’t know why you can’t walk on the log at Hanging Lake – here’s why. SPOILER ALERT: It’s the sensitivity of the lake’s ecosystem.
In March 2016, we wrote on our blog Don’t Do This At Hanging Lake and put people with public social media accounts on blast for deliberately breaking the rules. There’s a sign that clearly says, “Please Keep Off The Log.” The media picked it up, and for a brief moment everyone wanted to #savehanginglake.
We tried to change out our links to pictures of offenders as often as possible, but we didn’t have a clear system of when those were updated or when as a group we successful commented enough that that person took down the image. Now, we’ve got a system. On the first of each month, we are going to post 9 pictures of people on the log at Hanging Lake. Our goal is to get these people to take down their photo and stop encouraging others to get this same shot, breaking the rules, and slowly destroying Hanging Lake. If everyone stepped on the log and touched the water, it would destroy the delicate ecosystem and crystal clear water that is the essence of Hanging Lake.
The power of the #savehanginglake campaign is in a barrage of comments all at once from people basically saying, “not cool.” Violators that ignore the sign and walk out on the log to get a cool picture, basically want confirmation that it’s cool (remember users can delete comments, so even if you don’t see our 3 hashtags in the comment section it doesn’t mean that user isn’t taking notice). These violator’s accounts are public, so anyone can see the photo. But, if we aren’t commenting together that we are trying to #savehanginglake, people won’t get the message. The thing is, walking on a log in the middle of a lake on top of a mountain IS a cool photo! But, it’s just not allowed. We need to protect this beautiful National Natural Landmark.
When you see a picture of someone on the log, please don’t take that as open season in their comment section. We want to educate people that the signs are there for a reason. Remember, these are people who chose to ignore a sign and posted a picture of them happily breaking the rules. But, everybody can change. Here’s a conversation we had with a guy who’s public picture we put up for everyone to see and comment on after he took a picture of himself on the log, with the sign in the shot that says, “Please keep off the log,” a smirk on his face, arms folded, captioned “Why do good girls like bad boys?”
So, each month we are going to update our wall. All we are asking anyone who cares about Hanging Lake to do is leave these people a comment:
Sign up to get our monthly email reminder below and comment.
Together, we can Save Hanging Lake!
Remember that time we wrote a blog post and everyone stopped posting pictures on social media of them breaking the rules and standing on the log at Hanging Lake? We don’t either. Some people still aren’t following the rules.
#thesignsaidplease #youcanread #savehanginglake
I visited it for the first time in 1980, it was beautiful & not visited a lot. Since the highway became four lanes in the 90s, it’s been a crappy mess. Don’t go, close it completely!