Rock Stacking

While camping in Arkansas a couple weeks ago, I had a chance to try my hand at rock stacking. I’d never stacked rocks before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I mean, I’ve seen the results of other people’s rock stacks. But it always seemed like something that you would spend an entire day on and only come up with one good stack.

So I made my way to the area where I knew there would be plenty of rocks worth stacking. Roger did some stacking the day before but his stacks had all but vanished; flattened by the elements. The setting was amazing, right next to Lee Creek. It was a warm day; high 70’s with bright sunshine. Not the best for taking photos but I wasn’t about to be picky, especially since our campsite was buried in a foot of snow just one day before we arrived. I set right out to stacking and had a couple of stacks done within about twenty minutes. The image below, on the left, is of my first two stacks. As soon as I snapped a few photos, a stiff breeze blew through and they both simultaneously fell over in a heap.

I built two more stacks, hoping to achieve slightly more permanence from using different rocks. Again, I snapped a few more shots and just like before, a stiff breeze blew through and they were history. I think I was getting the hang of this.

Roger showed up soon after and joined me in the stacking extravaganza. Here he is attempting a particularly difficult, if not impossible stack. As it would turn out, it was impossible, for us at least.

Here’s my final stack. I had to rebuild this one several times before I came up with a configuration that would stand long enough to take a picture. Those are Roger’s stacks in the background.

Just as I was getting this photo, Roger said he was gonna head back to camp. I told him I was going to see how much higher I could get this one and then I’d head back as well. Roger was gone about ten seconds when I stood up to try and pile more on and, yep, you guessed it, a stiff breeze and that was the end of that.

Ah, well. Nothing lasts forever.