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
Again - your comments were and still continue to be gratuitous. I'll throw in another word - simplistic. Have you no shame? Your comments here only serve to express your disapproval, and frankly lack of compassion. That was a very different situation and not necessarily of one's choosing. Staying at home is much different than venturing into an off-limits area. For example, a 3-month old died when a tree fell on a house, and you're on NPT saying that such deaths are from the parents' foolhardiness.
Actually y_p_w - I was quite clear (as was Whittlesay) that the majority but not all were due to foolhardiness. But even in the instance you cited, it was quite clear that was an unhealthy tree and prudence would have called for its removal to prevent the exact event that happened.
What do you think I am disapproving of? Foolish behavior? You bet your bippy I disapprove of someone urinating in Old Faithful.
Ok. I realize I'm not going to dissuade you from carrying whatever positions you have. But why choose to post them on NPT? Again, most of your comments here add NOTHING to the discussion other than using it as your own sounding board for your personal views, which tend to be overwhelmingly negative.
Y_P_W - I think you are confused. It isn't me that is whining about every action proposed by the administration or the NPS. Its not me calling people ignorant, uncaring, gratuitious, racist, xenophobic et al. My views may be different than yours but they certainly aren't "overwhelmingly negative", of course unless you define overwhelmingly negative as being different than yours. As to "nothing to do with the discussion", I believe the discussion was about people acting foolishly and how they should be handled and actions to prevent foolish behavour. I was making the point that we have to put the blame in the right place before deciding on actions. In this respect the parks are no different than the rest of the world.
Ok, let's move on please...
It appears that he couldn't make it home to Colorado before getting in trouble again. And this when he's on bond for the Yellowstone charges...
https://www.kgwn.tv/content/news/Crash-car-fire-after-chase-through-Chey...
First of all you dont know him or what he was going through. First you to talk bad about someone trying to take their own life is the most ... up thing a person could do!!!! Next time you should think before you blast someone on the internet that could of been your brother!!!!!
Before I would blsst my brother on the internet I'd try to intervene with other family much before he took off to put himself, otheres, and national treasures at risk.