Go Through the Mud Puddle: Leave No Trace on the Trail

Image from the National Park Service's page.

Everyone has met it: you are walking a trail and a mud puddle stretches across its whole width. What is the most Leave No Trace thing to do?

It seems natural to step around it and keep your feet dry. But the edges of a trail are usually lined with plants — grass, flowers, moss, ferns — that footsteps easily damage, especially once every hiker behind you does the same. In a desert, going around might mean trampling fragile soil crusts. The low-impact answer is simple: go through the puddle.

Why

"Travel and camp on durable surfaces" is one of the seven Leave No Trace principles, which aim to leave nature as little changed by your visit as possible, protecting it and you and keeping outdoor places enjoyable for generations to come.

The most durable surface for walking, hiking or biking is always the trail — even when it is muddy. Detours around puddles quickly wear new paths into the vegetation beside it.

Detours around puddles can quickly create new trails that damage sensitive vegetation, as in this subalpine meadow at Mount Rainier National Park. National Park Service photo.

Staying on the trail protects plants, limits soil compaction and keeps the trail sustainable. Sometimes well-placed rocks let you cross a puddle on durable ground, but be ready to go straight through.

How

• Wear the right footwear for getting wet and muddy.
• Wait it out. If a trail is so wet that your steps or bike tires are tearing it up, the most Leave No Trace choice may be to wait a few days for it to dry.
• Pass it on. Walking through puddles rather than around them is one of the least known Leave No Trace practices. Explaining the reason to others you meet outdoors helps protect fragile plants and soils.

Be prepared with footwear that can handle a muddy trail. National Park Service photo.

Mud puddle blocking the trail? Go through it. The trail is the most durable surface, even when muddy; wear the right footwear or wait for it to dry. National Park Service graphic.

This page is part of the National Park Service's I Didn't Know That! series, developed with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, which explains the principle of traveling and camping on durable surfaces in more detail.

Sources

• National Park Service, in collaboration with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics: "I Didn't Know That!: Leave No Trace Principle #2 - Travel & Camp on Durable Surfaces." The page's cover photograph, which appears to be a stock image, is not reproduced.