The 16 dumbest things people have done in US national parks

Four men behind the travel vlog High on Life were thrust under fire in early May for walking off the boardwalk area at Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring. The thermal spring is one of the largest in the United States, and its water hovers around 160 degrees. Danger to the tourists aside, it is also an extremely delicate ecosystem. After drawing ire from the public, the foursome issued an apology.

Source: The Oregonian

An Instagram artist named Casey Nocket was banned from all national parks for life after graffiti of her Instagram handle was documented in seven different parks in 2014. She posted the images of her "tags" on her own Instagram, so was understandably caught relatively quickly and plead guilty in 2016.

Source: Tech Insider

In May, two visitors to Yellowstone saw what they thought was an abandoned bison calf. Instead of leaving wildlife alone or alerting a ranger, the tourists loaded the calf into the back of their SUV in a "rescue." The calf later had to be euthanized because it was rejected from its herd, likely due to its contact with humans. 

Source: National Geographic

A woman chose a municipal park in Florida as the perfect site to light up some hard drugs — specifically, she lit up in a massive 3,500-year-old Cyprus tree known as "the Senator." The tree caught fire and burned to the ground, and the woman received five years of probation.

Source: The Orlando Sentinel

"I was in a national park at the visitor's center. Suddenly, there's this huge commotion and a lot of screaming from the lobby.

I head over to find an entire tourist family crying and screaming and the park staff trying their best to manage the situation. Then the air shifts and it hits me.

They had applied a liberal amount of BEAR SPRAY all over themselves and the entire lobby. Apparently, they had mistaken the wording of "bear repellent" and had assumed it was to be used like mosquito repellent." — king_bestestes

Some humans truly think they are changing the natural landscape for good. Boy scout leaders in Utah's Goblin Valley came under fire in 2013 for deliberately pushing over and toppling a 200-million-year-old rock formation known as a hoodoo. The men filmed their conquest and cheered when it toppled, later claiming that they thought the unstable rock sculpture was "dangerous." The men later received probation for third-degree felony charges.

Source: Huffington Post, CNN

"Not a park ranger, but in Shark Valley at the Everglades National Park, every now and then some idiots will try to steal baby gators.

This is utterly stupid, not only for the fact that they grow up to be full size gators, but because when the little gators feel threatened, they cry, which attracts all the adult mama gators in the area. Which ends up being a huge problem since its literally in the middle of the Everglades and swarming with gators." — Redditor Tragic-Story

Redditor kristyin reports, "Earlier this week I was on a geological fossil tour with Ranger Ron at the Grand Canyon National Park...a testosterone filled hooligan felt like he would see how strong he was at the top of the trail. He picked up a rock the size of his head and dropped it on the hundreds of hikers and mule riders below. You you see every hiker see there impending death as this rock bounced of the canyon wall. Eventually about 1000' below it landed 2' from a hiker who likely is thanking the gods right now. Ranger Ron saw this and started yelling at this person like it he was the voice of God from a couple hundred feet away- needless to say this coward did not stay around to find out what would Ranger Ron caught up to him on the Canyon Rim. I have never seen a ranger that angry in my entire life and hope to never see something like that again."

"During a whale watch on a boat in a marine sanctuary I had a guy ask me what the elevation was....People get stupid on vacation." - RedditorJackRubysGun

A tragic story of acting without thinking resulted in the death of a man and a dog at a Yellowstone geyser in 1981. According to rumor-debunking website Snopes, a man was visiting the Celestine Pool when his friend's dog escaped and fell into the 200°F pool. The man dove headfirst into the spring in a valiant attempt to save the dog. Alas, the man suffered third-degree burns to his entire body and neither he nor the dog survived.

Source: Snopes; Redditor bailiff

"I was working in Petrified Forest National Park as a researcher...I watched two tourists pick up pieces of petrified wood (so, rocks) and try their hardest to light them on fire. This is actually illegal, as was their decision to take the pieces of petrified wood home with them when they finally decided that they wouldn't burn. I waited until they left and then called them in to the law enforcement. They were stopped at the gate and their car was searched." — ailetoile

While we can't confirm the validity or the seriousness of this comment card, some visitors to Yellowstone were disappointed at the lack of wildlife sightings.

The card reads, "Our visit was wonderful but we never saw any bears. Please train your bears to be where guests can see them. This was an expensive trip to not get to see any bears." See the original post here.

"A group of boy scouts decided they wanted to try to build a raft and started sawing away at young trees. That is suuuuuuper illegal. I think after they were caught they got fined something like $3000 per tree, I can't remember exactly." — Choniepaster

This one comes straight from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention: don't take selfies with the bison in Yellowstone.

Of five people who were gored by bison in Yellowstone in summer 2015, "[t]hree persons sustained injuries while taking photographs at a distance of approximately 3–6 ft (1–2 m) from bison, including two who turned their back on the bison to take the photograph; one person reported taking a cell phone self-portrait (selfie), which necessitated getting close to the animal."

Source: CDC

"He got out of his truck with a bag of McDonald's and sat down on a rock and ate his meal, it consisted of a 2-cheeseburger meal, fries and a coke. How do I know exactly what he was eating without staring at him the whole time? Because when he was done he threw all of the trash into the woods behind him. Greasy cheeseburger wrappers and all. My dad explained to him there are bears in woods and that that kind of thing is an invite for them to come into the campground. Guy laughed, said it was fine. Dad threatened him and made him go pick it all up." — yodamy

Redditor Choniepaster was a backcountry trail worker in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park in California and reported, " [I] ran into a group of about 4 people who were trying to hike to Mt. Whitney and back in two-three days (around 70-80 miles round trip from where they started) and they only brought cliff bars and a space blanket. They ended up getting chased down by the nearby ranger and escorted out of the back country.