Lost on the Trail: Investigating Hiking Wayfinding and Trail Navigation within the National Parks

Every year, thousands of search and rescue (SAR) operations are performed to locate and save lost hikers within our national parks. Yosemite National Park has approximately 250 rescues per year with nearly 70 percent designated to rescuing lost, missing, or injured hikers. The primary factors contributing to hikers becoming lost include losing the trail accidentally, taking the wrong trail, and miscalculating the time or distance of the planned route. In addition, inadequate signage placement, poor typographic design, and lack of signage at decision points are among the many wayfinding issues identified throughout the park. The purpose of this study is to investigate Yosemite’s hiking trail wayfinding system to design a better user experience in order to reduce the amount of SAR operations for lost or missing hikers.

Primary research includes examining trail wayfinding and trail navigation to identify shortcomings with hiking trail wayfinding within our national parks. Yosemite has approximately 60,000 overnight hikers annually, therefore, the research will measure how darkness impacts navigating trails at night. The practice of biomimicry will influence the overall design outcome through the analysis of nature’s navigational processes and bioluminescence. Multidisciplinary collaboration with the natural sciences will be necessary in order to design a nature-inspired and sustainable solution.

Yosemite National Park has an ideal research environment for this study because observational research has identified multiple areas for hiking wayfinding improvements. The study will conclude with a proposed nature-inspired solution to reduce the amount of SAR operations for lost or missing hikers.