Behind the ’Gram: Horseshoe Bend
This lucky-shaped landmark shows that sometimes being a social media hotspot is a path to preservation. Here’s the story behind the hashtag.
Every day, thousands of people travel to Horseshoe Bend, snapping photos in front of the landscape beneath them that doubles as a massive lucky charm: a horseshoe-shaped river circles a central cliff, its deep blue body surrounded by rock walls as though it were a secret to be kept. Located 270 miles north of Phoenix and 4 miles outside the small town of Page, Horseshoe Bend is best viewed from an overlook, where visitors stand above the 800-foot drop to the river beneath them. What they witness is the result of the 5-million-year-old lifting of the Colorado Plateau, in which the Colorado River became sealed in the beds at the plateau’s base, forced to run around the sandstone cliff that had formed.
On an average evening, people crowd the overlook, staking a space to set up cameras and take photos. Travel influencer Krystine Sazali said Horseshoe Bend was one of the busiest spots she stopped at during her recent travels in Arizona. “An hour before sunset, people were coming in droves. We even saw a proposal. It was like a show.”
But it wasn’t always this way for the once-quiet river formation and the 8,000-person population of Page. According to Mary Plumb, public affairs specialist for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where Horseshoe Bend is located, the overlook was a little-known spot where locals would park off US 89 and climb up to the rim to enjoy the view by themselves. “Seven to nine years ago, Horseshoe Bend was not really known outside of the local area,” Plumb said. “Anecdotally, it appears that social media caused Horseshoe Bend to become so visible. When it went viral on Instagram, that’s when visitation grew exponentially for us.”
Although no clear statistics exist surrounding visitation to Horseshoe Bend in 2010, the year Instagram was founded, from 2015 to 2017 alone, visitation to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area increased by 83 percent. The overlook now receives an estimated 2 million visitors each year, and during its busiest season, in August 2018, 3,675 people passed through each day. On Instagram, the number of people who have documented their visits to the overlook is just as formidable: the hashtag #horseshoebend appears on almost half a million posts. A recent post by @barbiestyle that features two Barbie dolls, arms slung around each other, sitting at the overlook, garnered thousands of likes within hours.
When a natural landscape goes viral on Instagram, photos often proliferate faster than local officials can react. The influx of visitors that follows can leave a formerly untouched place in danger of being “loved to death,” a phenomenon in which spikes in tourism — and the problems of overcrowding, littering and waste, and general mistreatment that come with it — threaten these landscapes, at times even to the point of permanent destruction. In the case of Horseshoe Bend, parked cars created traffic and safety issues, lines at local grocery stores grew longer, trash and waste accumulated, and unofficial trails created by those who walked off the main trail disrupted the preexisting landscape.
In many cases, the consequences of Instagram tourism are especially severe when newcomers, having been inspired to visit by a viral photo, are unaware of the proper etiquette required to maintain the places they explore. Alizah Akiko, an adventure travel influencer with more than 190,000 Instagram followers, said she thinks people like her with large social-media followings have a responsibility to respect the places they visit. “It’s important not to do certain things that people might not even know are bad for the environment, like putting up a tent in a spot that can erode,” she said. Akiko also notes that she avoids geotagging — an Instagram feature that adds a photo’s location to a post — lesser-known locations to prevent visitation from spiking.
However, factors like how well certain types of Instagram posts perform over others often conflict with a desire to share a photo that sets a positive example. Sazali agrees that she feels partially responsible for the impressions her followers might take away from her posts. “A lot of times, camera angles and camera tricks make it seem like I’m in the complete natural wild, when really it’s the way the shot was taken,” Sazali explained. “But people don’t really understand that. They think, ‘Oh, she must have walked all over these nice flowers.’” In ways like this, the phenomenon of Instagram-inspired tourism brings with it questions surrounding the responsibility of both influencers and everyday visitors to ensure that they are behaving properly at natural sites.
The Glen Canyon officials knew that, despite lacking the budget for new developments, they needed to adapt — not only to prevent further damage, but also to serve the needs of their new visitors and aid them in having a safe, enjoyable experience. Through partnerships with local concessioners and entry fees to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, officials raised enough funds to build a viewing platform with a safety railing at the rim. This way, Plumb notes, people can enjoy the view from behind the railing or venture closer to an unprotected edge away from the platform. The decision to limit the size of the railing also honors the wishes of the local community, some of whom responded in a survey that they wanted the overlook to be left natural. Additionally, an expanded parking lot, which charges a small parking fee, was introduced in April of this year. An ADA-compliant trail to the lookout was also partially constructed in April, and the remainder of the trail will be completed this fall. A shaded visitor station with restrooms and seating will be unveiled in 2021.
While the damage to natural landscapes that has resulted from Instagram hotspotting can make social media seem like a simple source of blame, in the case of Horseshoe Bend, the changes spurred by its virtual popularity have made it not only more visitor-friendly, but also more accessible. Plumb sees Horseshoe Bend’s development as an exciting example of a productive and necessary response to unexpected tourism. “I think Horseshoe Bend can be demonstrated as a model program for public land agencies dealing with the negative impacts from fast growing visitation,” she said. “For us, it happened overnight. We had to deal with it.”
However, many places do not yet have the infrastructure that Horseshoe Bend now enjoys, and Plumb is careful to emphasize that, at any site, responsibility for its upkeep extends both ways. “Visitors are responsible 100 percent. And state and federal level forces are responsible 100 percent. It’s 100 percent on both sides.” According to Plumb, individuals need to geotag responsibly, prepare themselves sufficiently for trips, and understand how to have as little impact as possible by following Leave No Trace principles. But when park officials find themselves confronted with an inundation of visitors, they must react by finding new ways to raise funds and implement necessary changes.
Now, Glen Canyon officials view Instagram as a positive force, aiding the local economy by bringing in tourism and providing welcome visibility to the recreation area. “Every public land management agency needs advocates, and social media is the best way for us to have friends,” Plumb said. “We see all the people who are posting that iconic shot of Horseshoe Bend as advocates for the natural resources out there.”
She feels fortunate that Horseshoe Bend has developed into a place capable of being widely and deeply loved. For it is only when officials and visitors work together to preserve such spectacular landmarks that they can be enjoyed in all their beauty — not only when they first become viral, but for generations to come.
About the author: Maddie Kim is an undergraduate at Stanford University and editorial intern at Airbnb Magazine. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The Journal, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, and The Adroit Journal, among others.
