JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
I just got back from a 5-day GRIT (graffiti removal) trip—a great experience, highly recommended for everyone. Normally, the NPS does these as houseboat trips, but their boat (“True Grit”) was out of commission, so it became a small boat camping adventure. We spent most of the time in the Escalante, cleaning up mostly charcoal graffiti in some big alcoves in Willow and Davis. There were 4 volunteers plus two rangers, then 4 other rangers came for part of the time from Bullfrog to help out. Probably cleaned up about 8000 SF (!) of panels over the course of the time I was there—assume 1000 linear feet by 8 vertical feet. It’s amazing how much graffiti there is out there…in fact, we rode by one group where the mom appeared to be helping her kids apply some new graffiti to the walls…
The main tools are hand scrapers and wire brushes—pretty labor intensive. More effective was the powerwasher, but that depends on batteries, which didn’t last that long… By the way, no chemicals are used in removing the graffiti, which is really good…
Part of the trip was spent scouting for new graffiti sites to hit on future trips, and found some big panels in other alcoves (people like those) at the mouth of Ribbon Canyon and in Fiftymile… For me, this was a great opportunity to just explore some places on foot and in the boat I don’t often get a chance to see…
Had some good philosophical discussions with the rangers about the difference between “graffiti” and “rock art”… I’d argue that it’s impossible to gain a perspective on the significance of modern graffiti without the passage of time, so if we remove it, are we removing part of our own story?… But it’s also true that the older stuff is likely more significant just for the fact that there were fewer people applying it (whether Anasazi, more modern tribes, 19th century explorers, or 20th century cowboys) than there are today, and in fewer places… Now it’s everywhere, like quagga mussels, so hard to see the forest for the trees, and the “story” (if there is one at all) is lost…
It’s notable that they always need to send out a team of archaeologists first to assess the “graffiti” before it is cleared for possible removal, so it’s a multi-step process…
It was a great group, learned a lot about the Park Service, and ultimately how much they really have to depend on volunteers and the general public just to keep the place in good shape… they really don’t have the manpower (i.e., budget) to handle all the tasks that try to get to… I come away with a much greater appreciation for their jobs… It would be fun to drive those NPS boats!
Special shout out to Edmonia Martinez, who runs the GRIT program—highly professional, calm, measured, team-oriented, and practical…she was great…
And it was also quite interesting to watch the lake rise about 5 feet in the days I was there… I saw quite a few camps with chairs and tents a little too close to the shore… We had to consider this in selecting the campsite we ended up at, which worked out fine…
The main tools are hand scrapers and wire brushes—pretty labor intensive. More effective was the powerwasher, but that depends on batteries, which didn’t last that long… By the way, no chemicals are used in removing the graffiti, which is really good…
Part of the trip was spent scouting for new graffiti sites to hit on future trips, and found some big panels in other alcoves (people like those) at the mouth of Ribbon Canyon and in Fiftymile… For me, this was a great opportunity to just explore some places on foot and in the boat I don’t often get a chance to see…
Had some good philosophical discussions with the rangers about the difference between “graffiti” and “rock art”… I’d argue that it’s impossible to gain a perspective on the significance of modern graffiti without the passage of time, so if we remove it, are we removing part of our own story?… But it’s also true that the older stuff is likely more significant just for the fact that there were fewer people applying it (whether Anasazi, more modern tribes, 19th century explorers, or 20th century cowboys) than there are today, and in fewer places… Now it’s everywhere, like quagga mussels, so hard to see the forest for the trees, and the “story” (if there is one at all) is lost…
It’s notable that they always need to send out a team of archaeologists first to assess the “graffiti” before it is cleared for possible removal, so it’s a multi-step process…
It was a great group, learned a lot about the Park Service, and ultimately how much they really have to depend on volunteers and the general public just to keep the place in good shape… they really don’t have the manpower (i.e., budget) to handle all the tasks that try to get to… I come away with a much greater appreciation for their jobs… It would be fun to drive those NPS boats!
Special shout out to Edmonia Martinez, who runs the GRIT program—highly professional, calm, measured, team-oriented, and practical…she was great…
And it was also quite interesting to watch the lake rise about 5 feet in the days I was there… I saw quite a few camps with chairs and tents a little too close to the shore… We had to consider this in selecting the campsite we ended up at, which worked out fine…
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