Stupidity From National Parks

My post today is prompted by this one from wirecutter at Knuckle Draggin' My Life Away, regarding stupidity with nature at Yellowstone National Park. I figured I would document a bit of my own with photos and videos. Not of us though, we know better.

For 3 weeks in August to September 2016, my wife and I embarked on a cross country RV trip that took us from Kommiecticut to Glacier National Park and then home via a different route. I still refer to it as "the trip of a lifetime." We made many stops along the way. Cedar Point Amusement Park, The Badlands, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, Glacier, visiting relatives in Big Timber, Montana, a wolf sanctuary in Indiana and many other small places. Prior to our arrival in Yellowstone, there were two incidents only a couple of days apart, one resulting in a gruesome death. 

This first one resulted in a 13 year old boy being severely burned when he was walking off the boardwalk on the thin crust over a subterranean hot spring and he broke through. They warn you repeatedly to not just go walking around and to stay on the boardwalk.

This next one resulted in an actual Darwin Award. What moron thinks slipping into one of these boiling acidic pools is just like the Jacuzzi at the hotel? The dope in the news story I guess.

Look inviting? Sure... just have your estate in order before hopping in

My stupidity documentation begins with this video of bison walking on the side of the road. We were on our first day in Yellowstone. I was focused on the bison and not on the idiots out of their cars so they are out of frame. I was safely away inside my truck zoomed in on them. At the 00:17 mark you catch a glimpse of my father-in-law in my rear view mirror. My wife yelled at him to get back in his truck after I stopped shooting and the bison went by when she saw him in the road. He didn't do that again the whole trip.

 

Next up is a narrated/commentary video of a group of people exhibiting multiple facets of stupidity. This was late in our few days visit at Yellowstone and I was so hoping to see them all scatter as the herd of bison charged at them. That would have been HIL-AR-IOUS!

Next up are a couple of photos of equally dangerous wild beasts.

Taken with a zoom lens from inside my truck, Far away

Just a big open petting zoo. Go feed `em!

See that giant nutsack? That mofo WILL KILL YOU!

And this last one I thought took place in Yellowstone as well, but it was at Glacier National Park. People are just as stupid there. We came upon a traffic jam in a strange place, and this is why.

A full grown grizzly bear in the weeds next to the road. We shot this with a zoom lens from the truck in between the cars and morons. They were actually out of their cars and taking selfies with it. I was driving, otherwise I would have taken video of potential evolution as morons might have been removed from the gene pool.

At one point while we were at G.N.P. there were search and rescue choppers buzzing around up in the mountains. Later that night we found out why. A father and adult son were hiking and fell down the glacier. The son was able to stop his fall but the father did not. A link to the story can be found here and here.