There’s A Rule About Peeing On National Landmarks, Isn’t There? [VIDEO]

So, this guy thought he’d be funny and run up to Old Faithful, and either pee or pretend to pee, into the geyser, breaking several laws in the process.

By DAVID on September 19, 2018
(Photo by Bill Schaefer/Getty Images)

National Parks, Landmarks, and Monuments are a respected icon of our history. With those comes rules, written and unwritten. Keep them clean, don’t deface them, and for the love of all that is reliable, don’t pee on them.

This guy didn’t get that memo. During a visit to the park, a man apparently decided he needed to relieve himself. More than likely, he thought it would be funny to “pretend” to relieve himself, into the fountain. He left the walking path, which is already illegal right there. He then walked across the face of the geyser, up to the vent, which appears to be several hundred feet away. That’s when he either did, or pretended to, urinate into the fountain. A woman captured the whole thing on video, of course. She said later that some people thought he was going to jump in.

At the end of the video, the urinator appears to lay down and stick his head over the vent as well. Naturally, Park Services was there to shout commands at the man, which he was clearly ignoring. The man was arrested later in the parking lot, charged with “disorderly conduct, walking off-trail in a thermal area and two counts of interfering with agency function.” Dan Wenk, Superintendent for the park, says “We take these cases very seriously… The law requires people to stay on boardwalks or marked trails in thermal areas. Anyone who ignores this law risks their life and possibly the lives of emergency personnel.” The water temperature can be above 200 degrees, and the steam above 350, so we can see why. Oh, and a lot of the water is acidic, so there’s that too.

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