An unidentified tour group rambled around Old Faithful geyser Wednesday evening with a total disregard for their safety or the fragile and iconic landscape.
At around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, a group of 30 left the boardwalk in front of Old Faithful Lodge and sauntered to the very lip of the geyser.
Signs are posted everywhere warning of the danger.
“They claimed they hadn’t seen the signs,” said Yellowstone Park Spokesperson Al Nash.
Three individuals — the tour group leader, tour bus driver and a tour member who initiated the out-of-bounds stroll — were cited for being off-trail in a thermal area and fined $125 each.
For more on the story, see Tuesday’s Tribune.
— By Gib Mathers, Tribune Staff Writer
Wow thats just plain stupidity
ReplyDeleteYellowstone - attracting the least intelligent people from across the entire U.S.
ReplyDeleteWhether it is the tourist filming the grizzly from 10 feet away, the tourist that doesn't understand buffalo are dangerous, or these wonderful examples of human intelligence; Yellowstone seems to have the tendancy to draw in the idiots of our nation.
Are you kidding? They didn't fine everyone of them ~ WHY NOT? And only $125 come on you pay more for littering it should of been $1000 a piece for everyone that went out there if you really don't want it to happen again. That was a slap on the wrist. Can you imagine what they would sued Yellowstone for if a geyser would of went off and they would of been burned? STUPID TOURIST use the brain God gave you. We agree with the previous Anonymous!
ReplyDeleteIts not so much stupidity but more ignorance to the different enviroment. Take half of us Wyoming natives and plunk us in downtown New York and see where we may wander without knowing the dangers of it.
ReplyDeleteGiven the abundance of warning signs and messages, I fail to see how anyone can claim "ignorance" as to the dangers and to the fact that these folk were in an area that's off limits for wandering.
ReplyDeleteBut for argument's sake, let's assume the tourists were, in fact, oblivious to both the dangers and the illegality of it all.
That doesn't absolve the tour group leader who 1. makes his/her living bringing people to the park and, thus, is VERY cognizant of park regulations and the dangers and 2. is in charge of the safety and well-being of each of those 30ish people that are out there traipsing about on a national treasure.
Stupidity still applies, All but the 2-3 kids in the group should have been cited and whoever the tour operator was should have their license to operate in the park suspended until such a time as the NPS can ensure all its employees have received proper training in park regulations.
Been gone 11 years and I see nothing has changed. The tour guide should be fined $1000 and have his license suspended, then made to do infomercials - of the dangers.
ReplyDeleteUm.. Well, Anonymous, the reason they might not have seen the signs is they were Japanese tourists. That automatically labels them as the singlemost idiotic group of tourists out there. I used to work in the park. The Japanese tourists were always doing something amazingly stupid. The older ones were fine but the younger ones behaved like subhuman idiots.
ReplyDeleteEven without the signs...wouldn't one notice that NOBODY else in the park was off the wood walkway? Or there's no footprints leading up to it?
ReplyDeleteThe fine is a joke. It should have been much more than that.