How terrible is this?

I snapped the photo while hiking Mount Si outside of Seattle (trail report forthcoming.) It was the first time I hiked Mount Si and the first time I’d seen this defacing of the mountain. After snapping the photo I spent probably the next mile just thinking about graffiti and defacing nature in general. It made me so angry, a sign of the ultimate disrespect.

After a while on the trail, my anger cooled and I became more philosophical about it. As much as I hate this graffiti, I realized that nature has the last laugh. As ugly and unpleasant as the graffiti is it won’t outlast that mountain. The mountain’s rocks will remain long beyond that paint runs and rinses away.