A man has been charged with multiple violations for walking to the very lip of Old Faithful's spout/Kurt Repanshek file
Walking on the travertine cone that spreads out from the fount of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park is clearly marked as being illegal, but that didn't stop a man from doing just that and appearing to urinate into the geyser.
"This is the Park Service! Get on the boardwalk!" a ranger yelled at the man, who strolled to the edge of the geyser on Friday.
With his back to her, the man appeared to urinate, and then laid down on the cone and looked into it.
"Oh my gosh, what an idiot," a bystander could be heard saying on a video that captured the man's actions.
"Get on the boardwalk!" the ranger again yelled, but the man continued to ignore her. "Get off Old Faithful!"
"Come on Old Faithful, erupt now," another bystander could be heard saying.
The man, whose name was not being released by the park, was charged with multiple violations, including being off-trail in a thermal area.
“We take these cases very seriously,” said Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk, “The law requires people to stay on boardwalks or marked trails in thermal areas. Anyone who ignores this law risks their life and possibly the lives of emergency personnel.”
Geysers and hot springs are incredibly dangerous: many people have been injured or killed by underestimating that danger, a park release said.
A park spokesman said Tuesday that there was no reported damage to the travertine cone caused by the man.
Back in 2016 an Oregon man walked far off the boardwalk in Yellowstone's Norris Geyser Basin and fell into an unnamed hot spring and was dissolved by the hot waters.
Down through the decades there have been relatively few deaths in the park's hot springs, just 22 before the 2016 incident, according to park records. But with hot spring waters that simmer around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and thin surface crusts rimming the features that can collapse under an individual's weight without warning, the geyser basins are inherently dangerous.
"...hot springs deaths have ocurred much more commonly in Yellowstone National Park than have grizzly bear deaths," Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey wrote in his book, Death In Yellowstone, Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park. "The park has around 10,000 hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and steam vents scattered over its mountain plateau. Though collectively called thermal features today, all are technically hot springs. Most are hotter than 150 degrees F and many reach temperatures of 185-205 degrees F."
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Comments
Reading Death in Yellowstone right now. Should be required reading for these violators - idiots. And when they get hurt they want to blame the NPS. Like the "Florence victims". Few have been true victims. Most have died because of their own (or their parents) stupid acts. Ignoring mandatory evacuation notices, going around barriers, driving through rivers of water .....
Sheesh. Going political on a tragedy.
Improving the gene pool???
Folks, what you are seeing above is the latest from Faux News - victim blaming!!! You don't really hear it from the folks who have been volunteering to help those displaced by these disasters, because they are too busy helping people to read reports about how things aren't that bad, and if things are that bad, it's your own fault.
The man that crossed the Rope at Old Faithful should be given judgment to the full extent of the law, and imprisioned if he cannot pay what ever the fines are. I dont care about the danger he put himself in. I care about the children that would be affected the rest of their lives if they saw what happened to him when Old Faithful erupted; because of his actions. I care that because of stupid people like himself will cause a tower of fencing to be put around a piece of nature that others have gotten to enjoy and be aw inspired by. Or for the matter the whole park to be closed because people jisj cant handle themselves like responsible adults and leave nature and the animals alone until the gates are going to be shut to us all. Matter of fact, just tie him up to a tree next to Old Faithful with a sign that tells what he did and let the public handle his punishment. Hate ignorance in a man, wont tollerate it.
Exactly, Anonymous! Some people just can't help themselves!
Political? Exactly what was political about my comment? Recognizing that people do stupid things and often suffer because of it is political?
Rick - if the geyser had gone off and scalded his face and body resulting in serious maming or even death, who's fault would it be? The NPS? The Ranger? Old Faithful's?