Photo credit: Sierra Heitkamp

Six People Seen Walking Off The Boardwalk In Midway Geyser Basin

Another group of people have been seen going off the boardwalk in Midway Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park.

According to KTVQ, a group of six people were seen walking off the boardwalk near Grand Prismatic Spring. This echoes, of course, the incident last month, where four Canadian men affiliated with High on Life SundayFundayz were seen walking toward Grand Prismatic, shooting video and taking selfies. The four men were later charged with misdemeanor crimes after the incident surfaced on social media. They briefly fled back into Canada to evade charges, but recently resurfaced when they hired a Laramie-based lawyer.

It is not known whether the people were “copycats” or not. At any rate, from the photo above, it doesn’t seem like they were walking in the same area as the High On Life boys. Venturing off the boardwalk in Yellowstone geyser basins is illegal, since it can create “a hazardous or physically offensive condition.” From KTVQ:

KTVQ.com | Q2 | Continuous News Coverage | Billings, MT

Judy Held of Great Falls recently took her family from North Dakota to visit the park for the first time.

While walking around the Grand Prismatic Spring trail, they noticed six people walking off in the distance.

At first they thought they were on another trail but they quickly realized the group was walking on the springs.

Held had her daughter and niece take video and pictures of the group.

“I could not believe that we were witnessing something, because we have been paying attention to all the things that have been happening on the news recently,” Held said. “I was shocked and I was upset. I was really upset.”

“I was mad,” Sierra Heitkamp said. “I mean even if there weren’t signs, you would think that people would know not to walk on something that is a natural wonder. We think that people would want to protect and preserve stuff like that.”

Held did confront the group after they got back on the designated trail.

A park ranger was alerted and escorted the group out of the park.

The incident comes shortly after the death of an Oregon man who went 225 yards off the boardwalk in Norris Geyser Basin before falling into a hot spring. It also comes after a 13-year-old boy had to be hospitalized after burning his foot and ankle in a hot spring near Castle Geyser.

About Sean Reichard

Sean Reichard is the editor of Yellowstone Insider and author of Yellowstone Insider For Families 2017.

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