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Tourists sentenced for walking and driving off-trail in Yellowstone

A line of people face away from the camera as a geyser shoots steam high into the air above them. Snow covers the ground.
Ruffin Prevost/Yellowstone Gate
/
Flickr
An eruption from Old Faithful is magnified in contrast with the cold winter air as visitors photograph the moment.

This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.

Some tourists were recently sentenced for traipsing into off-limits areas of Yellowstone National Park.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said in a release a woman from Seattle was sentenced to seven days of incarceration and $40 in court costs for walking off the boardwalk surrounding Old Faithful and walking about 10 feet onto the cone of the geyser. The office said some of her conduct was captured on video by another park visitor.

Separately, a Georgia man was sentenced to five years unsupervised probation and a ban from the park for driving off the road and parking in a thermal area. He was fined about $1,000.

Yellowstone is reminding visitors that snow-covered areas just off the boardwalk may seem inviting and safe, but the ground can be fragile and just a few inches thick. People have been severely burned and killed stepping off boardwalks.

It’s also illegal to walk on or damage the park’s thermal features.

Leave a tip: nouelle1@uwyo.edu
Nicky has reported and edited for public radio stations in Montana and produced episodes for NPR's The Indicator podcast and Apple News In Conversation. Her award-winning series, SubSurface, dug into the economic, environmental and social impacts of a potential invasion of freshwater mussels in Montana's waterbodies. She traded New Hampshire's relatively short but rugged White Mountains for the Rockies over a decade ago. The skiing here is much better.

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