Senseless Acts of Stupidity

While on our hike at Starved Rock State Park, I was disgusted and outraged over some of the things we saw.  On every one of the park's interpretive signs we came across, some idiot had used a Magic Marker to scrawl, in big black letters: "Tea + Carlos."  

Translation: "I love you, Carlos."

Then we came upon this message deeply carved in a rock and attributed, I suppose, to said "Tea." These people had to have a hammer and chisel to carve like this in solid stone, wouldn't they? This seems like pretty intentional vandalism to me.

And here's a tree with an unusual growth on it's trunk, forever marred by the senseless carving of some lovers' initials.





Crossing a bridge spanning the top of one of the (dried-up) waterfalls, I looked down, and at the bottom I counted 11 empty plastic water bottles.



What's WRONG with people?

My husband gets exasperated with me because I let "little things" like this spoil my adventure. He says I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders ---when there's nothing in the world I can do about the things that bother me so. Here is a photo of him, carrying his empty water bottle and trail map back to the trailhead, to dispose of properly.  It takes so little effort to show respect for the beauty of our natural world. So I just have to repeat...

 What's WRONG with people?