In search of the perfect selfie, four Canadian men are in hot water after ignoring the many, many warning signs at the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park and walking right out to the edge of the spring for their own personal photos. The act was dangerous, illegal and totally selfish. They even took a (now deleted) photo of themselves in front of a warning sign.
Located in the Midway Geyser Basin, the Grand Prismatic Spring is one of the park’s most iconic features. It is the largest hot springs in Yellowstone and one of the three largest in the world. Aside from the extremely fragile ecosystem, the waters are a scorching 160 degrees Fahrenheit. To the horror of other tourists, these four men decided the rules didn’t apply to them. They ignored the warning signs to walk to the edge for their perfect selfies—endangering their lives and the ecosystem of Grand Prismatic Spring itself. One Wyoming resident, who wishes to stay anonymous, captured the scene on video. WATCH:
The men were quickly identified, largely because they are driving a giant blue promotional bus, traveling the U.S. to promote a line of “High on Life” bro-riffic tank tops and shorts, taking travel photos and videos along the way. The outrage was swift and they took to social media to quickly apologize:
Three days ago we were lucky enough to visit Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. We got over zealous in our enthusiasm for this wonderful place. When standing at the face of such natural wonder, we were drawn to it. In an attempt to get the perfect shot, we acted in a way that doesn’t reflect our respect for the environment we were trying to capture. It was the wrong decision to make. We realize that now. We wandered off the laid out path and took photos of the Grand Prismatic Springs, unaware of the ecological ramifications and safety precautions. For this we would like to sincerely apologize to the Yellowstone park community and the public. We have spent a year saving for and planning this project, the last thing we intended to do was to disrespect this beautiful place. Quite the opposite. We have spent 75 days traveling the country and capturing it’s diverse beauty for the purpose of showcasing it to the world. We want to inspire others to go out and explore this vast land, to treat nature and our world with love and respect and to remind everyone watching to never take the wonder’s in their backyard for granted. This is what we stand for, this is who we are, with the purest of intentions we managed to screw up on the last day.
To move forward we would like to do what we can to guide the attention surrounding yellowstone and use it for a good cause. For the next two days, every time someone shares their favorite positive personal memory from Yellowstone National Park on the park’s Facebook page with the hashtag #DonationforYellowstone, we will donate a dollar per personal story post, up to five thousand donation.
We take your comments, messages and every piece of feedback seriously. We hope that our community will forgive us for our misstep and continue to see us as a source of positivity and inspiration as we continue to capture this life worth living.
Sincerely,
The High On Life Crew Ryker, Alexey, Justis, Parker
Based on their social media postings, their road trip has come to an end. Needless to say, they are now a part of a law enforcement investigation.