It’s hard to distract visitors from the abundant natural beauty of Yellowstone — but one group of tourists managed to do just that by putting themselves in harm’s way.
An outraged bystander caught them wandering off-trail in protected thermal springs areas — places that can regularly reach boiling temperatures of nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit, per the United States Geological Survey.
They posted a photo of the offending group on the subreddit r/yellowstone, writing, “Burns were [imminent.] Why do you have to ruin it for the rest of us?”
Fellow Redditors understood the severity of the situation. “Makes my blood boil,” one person vented.
“I wish people were required to pass a safety test before being allowed in the park,” a commenter said. “I also wish people who pulled stunts like this would get banned.”
Another commenter agreed, saying, “Shame is the answer in situations like this.”
And while some rule-breakers have been caught and fined, it’s generally not possible for park services to catch and identify everybody who disobeys.
And one commenter pointed out that, in the unfortunate event of someone getting burned after blatantly ignoring the park safety rules, there would still be consequences for the rule-abiding park visitors as well.
“[You’d] lose access when the NPS soon after shuts down walking trails and boardwalks due to visitor violations and avoidable deaths,” they said. “Then before you know it, the only way to appreciate Old Faithful will be on the Megatron screen from the viewing bleachers in the Old Faithful parking lot.”
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Yet despite the danger, countless people seem to believe themselves immune from repercussions. There are so many examples of this, there’s even a dedicated Instagram page called Tourons of Yellowstone (“tourons” being a combination of the words “tourist” and “moron”).
“People know and don’t care,” one person wrote. “Yesterday I told some people who were surrounding a black bear 20ft away that they were way too close. Many of the people who responded told me they knew they shouldn’t be that close, but they just wanted a picture. Plenty of photographers ignored me and continued to stand around, but yelled at anyone who ventured in front of their shot that they were too close.”
But while there will always be those who break the rules, park-goers should always strive to follow the principles of Leave No Trace — keeping them free of burns and the protected areas free of harm.
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This post was originally published on here
