Aesthetic and behavioral indicators included the number of trails extending from a campsite, distance to formal park trail, number of fire rings or scars, and the presence of litter or improperly disposed human waste. Results Survey staff located and assessed 395 individual campsites and shelters. There were 237 legal campsites at the park's 67 unrationed backcountry campgrounds. All 18 of the rationed shelter sites were also evaluated. Within designated campgrounds, individual campsites often occur in dense clusters.
Illegal campsites are generally quite small in size with limited vegetation loss or exposed soil.
The sum of campsite area for all illegal sites is small, and the extent of tree damage and root exposure on these sites is low, probably due to their infrequent use. Legal, unrationed campsites are larger in size and account for the greatest area of disturbance, largely because of the shear number of sites. Legal, rationed campsites are approximately twice the size of the unrationed sites but contribute less to the total area of disturbance because there are fewer rationed sites. The number of damaged trees and stumps are the highest for any category. These factors contribute to aesthetic perceptions of these sites.