Hiker shares photo after national park tourists blatantly disregard warning signs: 'It really does ruin it for the rest of us'

A casual hike for one Oregonian almost turned into a nightmare when they witnessed a group of tourists standing perilously close to the cliff's edge.

Fortunately, nobody fell, but the hiker posted a photo of the offending tourists on Oregon's subreddit, writing, "Watching people breaking laws at Crater Lake is always fun!"

"Don't we want future generations to be able to enjoy the parks as much as we have been able to?" — Photo Credit: Reddit

"These are the kind of the people who ruin things for everyone," they complained. "If the sign says 'stay back' … STAY BACK! Anything for an Instagram photo right? Sigh."

Fellow Redditors were similarly frustrated by the behavior.

One person vented, "It really does ruin it for the rest of us. How many park staff/emergency response personnel have to put their life [on] the line because people can't follow the rules."

Several had witnessed similar rule breachings themselves. One commenter called it "infuriating," saying, "I can't tell you how many times I've seen people trampling through areas clearly marked as prohibited. We really need to bring back some sense of shame."

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Another chimed in, saying, "It is amazing how busy the on site EMT crew is in the summer. I think one weekend day they had 4 transports to local hospital over an hour away. If ambulance is busy they call helicopter. Wouldn't want that bill."

Other than racking up costly medical bills — or worse, rendering them unnecessary — these behaviors put the ecosystems of our parks at risk.

While a visitor might assume that their individual actions wouldn't have major consequences, it's important to remember that over 325 million people flow through our national parks every year, according to the National Park Service. Of those, the USGS reports that approximately 500,000 visit Crater Lake.

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Given these numbers, it's much more clear why no visitor should be exempt from following the designated trails, which are put in place to protect both the parks and the visitors themselves.

After all, OP wrote, "Don't we want future generations to be able to enjoy the parks as much as we have been able to?"