‘Dangerous’ trek on Old Faithful Geyser lands men in prison, Yellowstone rangers say
Men who were caught walking on the cone of Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park have been sentenced to time behind bars, according to park rangers.
The trespassing duo — 20-year-old Eric Schefflin of Lakewood, Colorado, and 25-year-old Ryan Goetz of Woodstock, New York — pleaded guilty to charges of thermal trespassing following the Sept. 10, 2019, incident at the iconic thermal spring in the park that spans Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park rangers said in a news release on Thursday.
Rangers said “employees and visitors witnessed two individuals walking on the cone of Old Faithful Geyser and reported it to park dispatch” around 8:30 p.m. that day, and a ranger came and cited the pair for illegally being in a closed-off area.
“Visitors must realize that walking on thermal features is dangerous, damages the resource, and illegal,” Chief Ranger Sarah Davis said in a statement. “Law enforcement officers take this violation seriously. Yellowstone National Park also appreciates the court for recognizing the impact thermal trespass can have on these amazing features.”
Federal court records for Schefflin said he must serve a 10-day sentence with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons by March 1. Goetz is required to complete his 10-day sentence by Sept. 1, according to federal court records filed in December.
Schefflin and Goetz appeared in federal court in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, to face the charges on Dec. 5, according to park rangers.
Beyond the 10-day incarceration each man faces, the pair each owe $540 in restitution and are banned from Yellowstone for five years, park rangers said. They will be on unsupervised probation for five years as well.
Trespassing in hydrothermal areas in the park can have perilous consequences.
“The ground in hydrothermal areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface,” park rangers said. “Visitors must always remain on boardwalks and exercise extreme caution around thermal features.”
But those risks haven’t stopped visitors in the past — and sometimes with life-threatening results.
In September, 48-year-old Cade Edmond Siemers had to be hospitalized after falling into scalding-hot water near Old Faithful Geyser, which left “severe burns to a significant portion of his body,” rangers said.
Thermal areas at the national park are also littered with years of garbage left by humans, which sometimes shoots out of geysers and is collected by park staff and volunteers.
For example, a 2018 eruption of a usually placid hot pool called Ear Spring in the Upper Geyser Basin revealed cigarette butts, a Hamm’s beer can, part of a cement block, a plastic spoon, a straw, a baby’s pacifier, coins, a piece of rubber that looks like a heel insert, a blue pencil and more, park rangers said.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 12:21 PM with the headline "‘Dangerous’ trek on Old Faithful Geyser lands men in prison, Yellowstone rangers say."
