&gt; No matter how alone you seem, the trail is more like walking through a &quot;nature museum&quot; than actually being part of nature.<p>That&#x27;s true, but it&#x27;s largely to help people avoid getting lost and dying in authentic nature. Backpacking trails are much further toward the &quot;what trail?&quot; end of the spectrum, but they&#x27;re still marked trails. Going off the trail is dangerous.<p>(That said, another purpose of &quot;stay on the trails&quot; signs is to help prevent shortcut-based erosion, an entirely different goal coming from an entirely different motivation for leaving the trail.)