Living & Working in Great Places

anyone here about this at yellowstone

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Two seasonal Yellowstone National Park concession workers have been fired after a live webcam caught them urinating into the Old Faithful geyser.

Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined $750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years.

The second employee's case is pending.

The park's dispatch center was called after someone watching a webcam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful on May 4.

The geyser was not erupting at the time.

Xanterra Parks & Resorts general manager Jim McCaleb says the former concession workers were hired at the Old Faithful Inn and that such incidents were rare.

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Permalink Reply by YNP Gal on May 25, 2009 at 11:17am: Right, Brenda.

It was about 8 years ago and three Old Faithful employees. They were out at night in a thermal area and thought they were hopping over a stream on the way back to location. All three jumped in a thermal hot spring. Two died and one (unfortunately) survived. Not thinking it through caused a terrible payment in death...and horrible survival.

Thermal water cooks you from the inside out. You get out of the pool, get flown to Salt Lake City burn unit and die within 48 agonizing hours.

The one thing these guys last week didn't really consider was leaving the boardwalk to go across the crust and not knowing the thickness of the crust along the way. They could have broken through and hit boiling water underneath. Stupid idiots.

And, the latest loss was that guy who let his dog run on the boardwalk (illegal...no dogs are allowed outside parking lot areas...not on boardwalks or on trails!!) and the dog saw water on a really hot day and jumped right in. Of course, his idiot owner jumped in to "save" him and died as well.

Don't leave the boardwalks or walk on the crust...it's a wilderness area...not Disney World.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by CHRISTINA on May 24, 2009 at 8:17am: Yea Brenda - that's it; I heard they eventually all passed, but could be wrong. I hope some of the kids read these dicussions; maybe it will save them from doing something so crazy. Attempted rescues are an every day thing in Yellowstone because of stupidity, risking the rescuers lives not to mention those involved. And employees aren't the only ones - tourists usually leave their brains at home when they come on vacation. Driving drunk in the park on the twisty roads will almost certainly get you dead. Well enough gloom and doom; everyone should enjoy the amazing things the park has to offer, but be smart about it.; ▶ Reply to This