A Yellowstone National Park tourist was sentenced to jail for getting too close to a famous geyser.
Angela Flaherty, 44, of Seattle, was sentenced to 7 days in jail after pleading guilty to coming within 10 feet onto the cone of Old Faithful, violating a federal law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The law requires “foot travel in all thermal areas and within the Yellowstone Canyon between the Upper Falls and Inspiration Point must be confined to boardwalks or trails that are maintained for such travel and are marked by official signs.”
Some of the Seattle woman’s conduct was captured on video, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Flaherty was also ordered to pay a $40 fee.
The 44-year-old isn’t the only visitor who has gotten too close to the attraction in recent years.
In July 2021, a 37-year-old man from Maine pleaded guilty to trespassing in the Old Faithful thermal area. He was sentenced to 15 days behind bars and fined $200. He was also banned from Yellowstone National Park.
Some others have been injured or worse as a result of nearing the thermal area.
A 60-year-old New Hampshire woman visiting Yellowstone National Park last September suffered second and third-degree burns to her lower leg while walking “off-trail” in a thermal area near Old Faithful, park officials said at the time.
In 2016, a 23-year-old Oregon man wandered off the designated boardwalk only to fall in a hot spring, killing him.
Old Faithful erupts more frequently than any of the other big geysers, with an average interval between eruptions spanning 90 minutes, the park’s website states. An eruption lasts anywhere from a minute and a half to five minutes and expels 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water, the website says.
“Think safety, act safely. Yellowstone is a dangerous place,” the site says.
