Lost on the Trail: Investigation Hiking Wayfinding and Trail Navigation within the National Parks
Date
2020-08
Authors
Mitschke, Sara
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Abstract
Every year, thousands of search and rescue (SAR) operations are performed to
locate and save lost or missing persons in the national parks. Yosemite National Park is
one of three National Park Service units with the highest occurrences for search and
rescue operations (Heggie and Amundson 247). Yosemite’s Search and Rescue
(YOSAR) team performs approximately 250 rescues per year. Nearly 70% of those
rescues are to locate lost, missing, or injured hikers (Dill). The primary factors
contributing to hikers becoming lost or reported as missing include losing the trail (and
then being overtaken by darkness), taking the wrong trail, and miscalculating the time or
distance of the planned route (Doke 44). Inadequate signage placement, poor typographic
design, and lack of signage at decision points are among the issues found when analyzing
wayfinding throughout the park. The results of the project will include preliminary
designs of a hiking signage and marker system inspired by the Czech Hiking Markers
Standard, Appalachian Trail marker system, and the trail difficulty ratings from the
National Ski Areas Association. The purpose of this project is to investigate Yosemite
National Park’s hiking trail wayfinding system in order to design an improved solution
and to reduce the amount of SAR operations for lost or missing hikers.
Description
Keywords
Wayfinding, Environmental graphic design, Biomimicry, Hiking, National parks, Signage
Citation
Mitschke, S. B. (2020). <i>Lost on the trail: Investigation hiking wayfinding and trail navigation within the national parks</i> (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.