Yellowstone tourist gets 7-day jail sentence after walking on geothermal area for photo

A tourist has been sentenced to 7 days of jail time after being caught on camera trespassing over delicate and dangerous ground in Yellowstone National Park. The area the tourist was walking on was fenced off to the public and high in geothermal activity.

The tourist was 21 year old Viktor Pyshniuk. Pyshniuk wandered away from the path near the park’s Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone’s Norris Geyser Basin during his visit.

According to the Department of Justice press release statement, the geyser is the most dangerous in the world, and currently the world’s tallest active geyser. “It has erratic and unpredictable eruptions that can rise anywhere from six to 300 feet high,” said officials.

A park worker had spotted the tourist straying from the boardwalk, and photographed him within 15 to 20 feet of the geyser’s steam vent. When questioned, Pyshniuk apparently said that he was trying to take close up photos of the geyser.

The ground at Yellowstone National Park is incredibly dangerous due to possible weak ground layer, the geothermal features of mud pots, heated steam and boiling water. It is illegal to stray from the boardwalks in the park.

Yellowstone tourists can get themselves in trouble a vast number of ways. If they aren’t falling into boiling water pools they are getting too close to the wildlife, particularly the bison and bears.

In addition to his jail sentence, Pyshniuk was ordered to pay $1,550 in fines, placed on two years of unsupervised release, and banned from Yellowstone National Park for two years.

[via yahoo]