“I want to see one right there,” Morrow said, pointing to a spot just feet away. “I’d throw it a cookie.” ...**
ever since Rangers prevented doddering old veterans from parking at War memorials during the government shutdown I have resolved never again to feel sorry for a ranger for any reason ever.
I hope the foolish visitors raised absolute pandemonium, misbehave and only ask stupid questions.
F'ng idiot.
Saw the stupidity first hand 2 weeks ago. Family walked out onto the edge of a meadow full of Buffalo so they could position their kids with the herd behind them. Sorry, kid is no match for a rampaging bull. I got stellar photos from my vehicle with a telephoto lens. Close enough
“Three visitors from Asia cited on separate occasions for illegally collecting water from the park’s thermal features.”
Bureaucracy run amok. I think we could spare a water sample for some Asian tourists.
All part of the ‘keep the proles out of the parks’ initiative by the elites.
Washington state residents. says it ALL.
Dumbasses. And the center of the dumbassery is King County.
“I want to see one right there,” Morrow said, pointing to a spot just feet away. “I’d throw it a cookie.” ...**
Saw bears up close in Yellowstone in 1968...cars would stop and people would throw them food...then you’d have a bear at the car, begging...some fools would get out to take pictures. I worked at Mammoth Hot Springs that summer as a 17 yr old. Did some naive things, but survived.
In the mid-'80's or so, my then-wife and myself were hiking at Yellowstone.
We came to a bend in the trail at the head of a small meadow.
About 100 yards away stood a "librarian" type woman (I hope the description is understood, and yes, stupid liberal is implied), holding something out toward an object we could not clearly see.
I got my bino's out and saw the idiot woman was holding a banana out to a young grizzly cub, who was doing his best to hide in the lee of a fallen spruce.
The stupid woman was holding the banana out, then, with it in her hand, would reach to her face and push her glasses back up.
I could see the cub following her motions, but my wife could see the Mama Grizzly about 20 yards away, watching intently, swaying back and forth.
I told my wife to start walking calmly back down the trail and that I would follow.
I had just purchased a brand new S&W .41 magnum and had it in my back pack.
(Yes, I know it was illegal at Yellowstone, but I will have the means to protect myself.)
I yelled at the Mama Grizzly, and she apparently was unable to scent any of us, as the wind was directly in my face.
She grunted several times and the cub took off toward her and they both quickly moved into the scrub brush and disappeared.
I confronted the stupid woman and she actually told me that she was going to pet the cub if it got close enough.
I got back to the manned trailhead before the idiot and told the Ranger what had happened, minus my gun, of course, and he confronted the woman when she came down.
Don't know what happened afterward, probably nothing, but it just illustrates the absolute stupidity of some of these people.
Rules, schmules. We're in the era of Hillary. Get with the program.
I’ve seen all kinds of dumbassery in the state and national parks.
Recently, in Shenandoah National Park, I was hiking a loop known for a large number of waterfalls (9) and came across one family, where the morbidly obese father was carrying a 100lb pack with all the stuff for the eight other members of his party. He took off his shirt (ugh!) and climbed into a small side-fall and began to fill the party’s canteens/water bottles. I asked them if they were going to filter or treat the water before drinking it and the mother said, “But it’s a crystal clear mountain stream!” Thanks, Coors. I advised them that they had about 36 hours to seek medical treatment before the really bad stuff began to happen.
People hiking the trails in street shows and only carrying a half-bottle of Mountain Dew. On an eight-mile loop with a elevation differential of 2500 feet. WTF?
A couple of other tourists came upon the scene, and obviously they were not naturalists nor had they spent long periods of time in the field as had I. They kept getting way too close to the herd bull, with his armchair sized rack of antlers. I told them to back off, that they could spook him and end up with several hundred pounds of muscle driving those sharp antlers right through them. Suddenly, I sensed a presence behind me. It was a ranger. He said, "Thank you. You may have saved some lives here."
I subsequently have come upon ignorant tourists in another Colorado park virtually coming nose to nose with a bear feeding on berries in a thicket, with holding on to an iron railing during cloud to ground lightning in Arizona, hiking without water in Arizona, etc. Our national parks are magnificent and I thank G-d I was privileged to admire His creations in them, but people whose only previous contact with nature was watching Discovery Channel will continue to come to grief as they enter a kingdom not theirs with the typical human arrogance.