geysers.org

A new year means new ways for people to cause trouble and new strange behaviors and new foolishness.

• First day in park, arrive at Norris at 07:00. Call for West Entrance to assist West PD. Woman at restaurant, drunk and disorderly. Not clear if call by owner's wife or if owner's wife causing the trouble. Call to stand down 20 min later.
• EMS (Emergency Medical Services) pager callout— for two employees, aged 19 and 20, at Lodge HR office with bear spray in the eyes.
• Grizzly in the old Old Faithful corrals and athletic fields area.
• Call about car at Lone Star trailhead stuck in snowdrift. Needed tow truck to pull it out about 8 feet.
• Medical call in late evening of 19 year old with severe head laceration received "from the ceiling". Bleeding was under control by time EMS arrived. Shortly after that a report of someone, wrapped in a blanket, was accosting people stopped waiting at the one lane overpass. They were searching for him when I decided it was a good time to go to sleep.
• At Midway, person called in to report that they hit, and knocked down, the stop sign at the exit from the parking lot. Or, as the responder said, "destroying government property."
• Report of 6 people from silver van with Calif plates out at Gentian Pool.
• Multiple burglar alarms at OF water treatment reservoir being caused by a squirrel.
• Maintenance saw rocks being collected along Firehole Canyon Dr. Car stopped on Fountain Flats. Driver consented to search. Car packed but labeled contraband found. Driver cited.
• Right afterwards, car from OF pulled over for doing 66 in 35 zone. Cited with court appearance.
• Seemed to take a lot of time to take care of a fire alarm at the Inn, despite report of sparking and a fire extinguisher being used.
• One evening during the springtime bear closures of the Lower Basin, someone noticed that there seemed to be a lot of cars (Eleven) parked at the Fairy Falls trailhead. Patrols went in from there and Ojo Caliente. Only a family of five from Iowa were encountered and cited.
• New type of traffic stoppage-- tree jam due to fallen tree.
• Tesla on West Entrance road needing tow to West because it ran out of power just past Seven Mile Bridge.
• At Fountain Paint Pots, drone pilot only got a warning. Then things got interesting. Car hit an elk. Elk survived, but was near the road. That attracted attention of not only cars passing by, but also a wolf. We heard about this just before entering Fountain Flats while returning from Norris. We made it through as trafic was already being moved along. About an hour later, the wolf was still trying to figure out how to get that meal when a grizzly bear joined in on the fun. Found out later that wolf was chasing elk, and this got caught on dashcam video. Elk later moved from road, where it had been "10 feet from fog line."
• Rockfall at Gibbon Falls. Cleanup impeded because there's still debris coming down. Then weather closures for other two routes to Norris, cutting it off for rest of morning.
• Next day rockfalls on West Entrance road. At least one car ran over some of the rocks and needed service
• Power outage from at least Norris south lasting several hours causes the noisy Old Faithful generator to be used. This causes overheating and trips fire alarms in building.
• Call from Fountain Paint Pots about two people off trail in Kaleidoscope Group. Way off trail-- "400 yards", "quarter mile". Possibly looking for "bathing ". Ranger headed that way asked for possible assistance from Geology if they had to go after them. Instead, people returned to FPP, where they were rewarded with a return visit to Yellowstone to meet with the magistrate later this summer.
• "Fifty foot RV with 50 foot trailer" blocking lane in OF parking lot. Blocked in by other vehicles so couldn't move.
• Late night report of dispatching a bison just off the road at Terrace Spring.
• Report of "child of 13" riding skateboard on boardwalk at Midway.
• Tour guide has medical emergency at FPP, stranding vehicle and two clients who need to get back to Jackson.
• Maintenance must've started their holiday weekend early, because the next (Friday) afternoon, the bison carcass was still there. (We saw it going to and coming from Norris.) That's when driver of rental RV made inquiry to NPS person at Madison about removing the horns as keepsake. That attention finally got the bison moved. (Why not carve off some hamburger too?)
• In OF employee trailer area, afternoon report of caged dog barking all day. Dog confiscated and relocated to ranger station.
• Report of bear south of Daisy. (Not sure if “Daisy” the turnout, or “Daisy” the geyser.) Turned out to be coyote. Nevermind.