Yet another ‘touron’ has been caught on camera behaving badly in Yellowstone National Park.
Heartbreaking images posted on the hugely popular Tourons of Yellowstone Instagram page showed a mother dodging barriers around a fast-moving river and leading her young son to the water meters from the edge of Lower Falls in Wyoming park.
The cliff drop is 308 feet, nearly twice the height of Niagara Falls, though the flow rate is much lower.
On the viewing platform, a man and another child can be seen interacting with the woman and youngster while taking pictures.
As noted by many of the commenters on the video, accidents happen easily around waterfalls. In the same place in 2014 an eight-year-old girl plunged more than 500 feet to her death after losing her balance while leaving the designated path.
“Please tell me she has been arrested and charged with child endangerment,” one commenter said. Another said: “This has got to be the worst yet… a little slip/trip and over the falls they go”, as another dubbed the woman: “Mother of the Year”.
The woman and her young child are shown here dangerously close to entering the water next to the Lower Falls in Yellowstone National Park
The cliff drop is 308 feet, nearly twice the height of Niagara Falls, though the flow rate is much lower
During the video, the woman can be seen communicating with a man who takes pictures of her
The woman and her child were only a few feet from the edge of the waterfall
The Lower Falls area is known for its hiking, located in Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. Yellowstone’s official website states that to view the Lower Falls, “Use paved lookouts or take short hikes for better views.”
In May, the National Park Service issued a public notice warning the public about the dangers surrounding waterfalls leading up to the summer months.
The warning urged the public to be aware of fog, slippery rocks, slopes and undertows near bodies of water. Visitors are also advised to wear appropriate footwear as ‘flippy floppies can lead to slippy sloppies’.
Members of the public are allowed to enter most Yellowstone wetlands.
It is not clear when the video was made. DailyMail.com has reached out to Yellowstone for further comment on this story.
Only a handful of approximately three million annual visitors die accidentally in a park that spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Park historian Lee Whittlesey recounted Cowboy state newspaper in 2022 that the vast majority of deaths in Yellowstone are due to “visitors’ false sense of security” and are the result of “overconfidence or carelessness about the imminent dangers of the park.”
This comes after a series of incidents involving reckless tourists interfering with wildlife in Yellowstone.
Earlier this month, a shocking video surfaced showing an unknown man harassing a black bear in the park. Park officials said the man’s behavior was “blatant” and if identified, he could face up to six months in jail and/or a $5,000 fine.
The man, who was in an attacking stance with his fists clenched in the video, can be heard barking viciously at the bear.
He then tried to chase the bear – which seemed to be relaxing on a mountain and minding its own business – but the bear didn’t budge.
This time, instead of running away, the bear stared at the reckless man, seemingly tired of his behavior and decided to retaliate and chase him back to his car.
The tables quickly turned for the crazed daredevil, who went from growling at the bear to screaming for his life.
Two tourists also came dangerously close to being stung by bison in Yellowstone National Park in shocking videos posted last month in the space of two weeks.
A video, also posted by TouronsOfYellowstone and credited to Russ Bjorn on Instagram, shows a woman, who has not yet been identified, extending her hand in an attempt to touch the bison.
In a split second the buffalo lunged forward, giving the impression that it was about to attack. The woman quickly retreated in panic, tripping over herself in the process. The fearful screams of the group can be heard in the background.