A vandal who carved the name ‘Nick’ into a rock wall in Yellowstone has sparked fury among fans of the iconic park.
A photo shared on the Facebook group ‘Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of the Idiots’ showed the squiggle on a thermal crust off the Biscuit Basin boardwalk.
The scratch read: “Nick and (illegible) were here.” Members of the Facebook group have launched an effort to try to identify Nick and his accomplice.
Dirty, rotten idiots! Get photographic evidence that catches them in the act! They deserve to be publicly denounced and shamed! This is getting ridiculous,’ said one member of the group.
Yellowstone National Park enthusiasts are outraged after a tourist carved “Nick and (illegible) were here” into the thermal crust of the Biscuit Basin boardwalk.
“Please take a photo of the people doing this and follow them to the vehicle, take a photo of the license plate and hand it in,” said another.
‘There are a limited number of Rangers, so they need our help with this. Let’s not allow these people to destroy our beautiful parks. Let’s get people.’
The Biscuit Basin test is a 0.6-mile loop surrounding hydrothermal features, such as Sapphire Pool, Avoca Spring and Jewel Geyser, which erupt every seven to 10 minutes.
Others who saw the image expressed fury at the vandalism and said they would like to get revenge on the people who violated park rules.
‘Man, if I see someone doing this, they’ll eat that rock and then it won’t turn into anything solid. “People are ignorant and I’m ready to start turning off the lights,” one person said.
“I’d like to watch them on a hill full of red ants,” said another.
The Biscuit Basin test is a 0.6-mile loop surrounding hydrothermal features, such as Sapphire Pool, Avoca Spring and Jewel Geyser, which erupt every 7 to 10 minutes.
“Nick, you’re crazy,” wrote a third.
“What’s wrong with these idiots, ban them from the park,” someone else added.
As the tourist season in Yellowstone heats up, so do groups dedicated to rounding up jerk tourists (called ‘tourons’) in an attempt to hold them accountable.
Webcams around Yellow Stone National Park have captured multiple cases where ignorant tourists have put themselves in harm’s way for various reasons, ranging from wanting to get close to wildlife or scaling barriers to get a better selfie.
An Instagram account titled ‘Tourons of Yellowstone’ compiles all the cases in which a ‘touron’, the combination of ‘tourist’ and ‘mouron’, commits another incredibly stupid charade, desecrating the park’s rules over and over again.
James Bond star Pierce Brosnan was fined $500 and made a $1,000 donation after he was caught posting photos of himself online at a Yellowstone thermal area during a visit in November.
The actor, 70, walked in a prohibited area at Mammoth Terraces in the northern part of Yellowstone near the Wyoming-Montana line on Nov. 1, according to citations issued by the park.
He uploaded images of himself standing in the snow at the thermal feature to his Instagram page, according to court records.
Venturing off the boardwalk is punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.
Brosnan initially pleaded not guilty in January to wandering into the “sensitive” and dangerous hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, despite being photographed standing in the protected area at the time of the alleged violation.
Judge Stephanie A. Hambrick granted the 70-year-old man’s request to cancel his initial appearance.
Pierce Brosnan was fined $500 and made a $1,000 donation after he was caught posting photos of himself at a Yellowstone hot springs online.
In 2021, a Connecticut woman was jailed for seven days, fined $2,000, and banned from Yellowstone for two years for leaving the boardwalk and approaching thermals.
Yellowstone features are dangerous and fragile, and if damaged, can take years to correct.
Numerous people have died after falling into Yellowstone’s boiling pools.
They include Colin Nathaniel Scott, who is believed to have dissolved in the hot acidic water after leaving the boardwalk at the park’s Norris Geyser Basin in search of a place to soak in 2015.