Anza Borrego Desert State Park - California State Parks - State of ...

Final Report – October 2001
Photos 2 through 4. And like the results in the Borrego Palm Canyon sample, these
results indicate that a reasonable amount of trail improvement is acceptable within a
fairly wide range. In both the Mountain Palm Springs and Borrego Palm Canyon
samples, there was a noticeable dip in acceptability for conditions represented in Photo
3. The major difference between it and Photos 2 and 4 is that the latter two have a
recognizable trail border made of stones, whereas Photo 3 has none. This may suggest
that visitors prefer to see a well-defined pathway. However, as seen in the strongly
negative reaction to Photo 6, there are limits to the amount of alteration visitors are likely
to tolerate. The drop below 50% with Photo 5 may suggest that the Mountain Palm
Springs visitors were more sensitive to the signs along the trail than were those visitors
at Borrego Palm Canyon.
1 2
3 4
5 6
Panel 5. Photo series representing increased trail standard – Mountain Palm Springs
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