A video of a tourist at Yellowstone National Park has viewers shocked and angered as it shows the visitor getting dangerously close to a geyser for a photo op.
The video was posted to the Tourons Of Yellowstone Instagram account (@touronsofyellowstone), which shows exactly what not to do when visiting a national park.
The video is over a minute long and shows a man wandering around a restricted section of the park, crouching down to take a picture close to a geyser.
"Why is he still going?" someone behind the camera asks.
Geysers are natural hot springs that can erupt at any minute, shooting hot water into the air. According to the National Park Service, it's vital that guests visiting do not walk beyond the designated areas to get closer to the geysers.
"Geyser basins constantly change, making it impossible to guess a safe path. Also the ground way be only a thin crust over billing water or scalding mud," the website says.
This tourist isn't the only one to make a mistake like this — sometimes in the beauty of nature, tourists can forget that the same nature can also be deadly and that these rules are in place to keep them safe.
Because of this, it's important to recognize and educate those visiting the parks on how to enjoy the incredible sights while still maintaining the utmost respect for the natural world.
The basics include making sure you're not littering and staying on the given paths so you won't get hurt or hurt the wildlife. Some visitors, however, even go as far as to correct the mistakes of others, like helping to take down excessively large rock cairns at the request of the park services.
Viewers of the Instagram post were largely displeased with the actions of the daring tourist.
"I don't know what makes people so entitled," said one user.
Others chimed in and said, "Why is it they never get arrested for doing this s***," and "We're witnessing 'survival of the fittest' right here."
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