Is Outside Magazine promoting illegal camping in Arches National Park?/Outside's twitter feed

Careful with that "tweet" button, folks. 

Last week Outside Magazine, in the daily ritual of feeding social media channels, reached back two years for a cool nighttime photograph from Arches National Park that, unfortunately, inadvertently promoted camping in an area of the park that is off-limits to camping. 

What's going on? The social media-driven decay of sound journalism, perhaps. In the frenzy by countless outlets -- news sites, bloggers, conservation groups, ring-wing outlets, left-wing outlets, politicians, etc. -- to gain notice and build "followers" and "likes," we're seeing at times some playing fast and loose with the facts. Or not fully taking a moment to consider the implication of what they post.

That was Outside's mistake last week. In a "tweet" on Twitter, the magazine's social media staff posted the above 2014 photo of an illuminated tent on a ledge near Delicate Arch with a lone individual standing on an outcrop gazing at Delicate Arch. The photographer also seems to have used some lighting in the bowl beneath the iconic arch to help illuminate it. 

In a few words promoting the image, Outside wrote: "This shot of Arches National Parks illustrates why it's a great place to run away to."

Sure, it's a gorgeous shot, one that convinced the magazine's online editors back in 2014 to run it on their site. But pitching a tent overlooking Delicate Arch is also against park regulations, and the photographer would have been ticketed had a ranger come upon him.

Unfortunately, with nearly a quarter-million followers on Twitter, Outside is telling folks it's OK to pitch their tents within sight of Delicate Arch. 

"If this is a true picture without any 'shopped' editing, then camping is prohibited in the depicted area," Arches Chief Ranger Kevin Moore said. "Since there is a prop it maybe a commercial violation as well."

On Arches' "Backcountry Camping" page on its website, there is a clear explanation of where one can, and where one can't, pitch their tent outside of the Devils Garden Campground.

Backcountry camps at Arches must be:

* at least 1 mile (1.6km) from (and out of sight of) any designated road,

* at least 0.5 mile (0.8km) from (and out of sight of) designated trails,

* out of sight of any arch named on a USGS topographical map, and established before sundown.

The park also has posted a map that clearly shows where backcountry travelers can camp, and the area around Delicate Arch is in the 'no camping' zone.

This map on the park's website shows where backcountry travelers can camp/NPS

Jenna Giddens, the National Park Service's field operations supervisor for interpretation at Arches and Canyonlands national parks, said not only is it illegal to camp in view of Delicate Arch, but it's also against park regulations to artificially illuminate arches in the park.

“Illuminating the features is a huge problem. We have a lot of people who want to photograph the night sky, and it ruins the images," she said Friday.