Tag: Bryce Canyon National Park

Watch: ‘Idiot’ nearly takes fatal leap in Bryce Canyon National Park

Footage shows a man leaping over a lookout railing and falling backward upon landing, then sliding to a stop at the edge of a cliff.

“Touron” is a word created by combining tourist and moron, and is defined as someone who does something stupid while on vacation. In Yellowstone National Park, for instance, tourons are constantly getting too close to bison, some with disastrous results.

Well, stupidity isn’t solely reserved for Yellowstone, as one touron in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah proved.

TouronsOfYellowstone’s Instagram page posted video of a tourist leaping over a lookout railing and falling backwards upon landing, and sliding to the edge of a cliff. Had he kept sliding a couple more feet or so, he’d have met his demise.

“I don’t normally post two non-Yellowstone tourons in a row, but this guy is a real IDIOT and I couldn’t help myself,” the post reads. “First Bryce Canyon post I’ve ever done, I think.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg_HazAl-IF/

“Considering that this occurred at one of the park’s most popular viewpoints and dislodged rocks onto the heavily trafficked Navajo Loop below, we are extremely thankful that no serious injuries occurred,” park spokesman Peter Densmore said in a statement, according to KSL.com.

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Densmore stated that dangerous behavior “puts everyone at unnecessary risk…Signs, barriers and regulations are in place for the safety of all of our visitors and the protection of this special place.”

Densmore also called the behavior “relatively uncommon” at Bryce Canyon National Park, and said the majority of visitors “recreate responsibly.”

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Did a curse prompt tourist to return rocks to national park?

A tourist from Hawaii mailed three rocks back to Bryce Canyon National Park from where they had been stolen. Was it due to Pele’s Curse?

A tourist from Hawaii mailed three rocks back to Bryce Canyon National Park from where they had been stolen, and a theory as to what prompted this righting of a wrong might relate to Pele’s Curse.

Hawaiian legend has it that Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes, becomes angered when tourists take home a lava rock, and bad luck befalls anyone who dares to steal “a sacred piece of the fire goddess.”

Hundreds of superstitious people return lava rocks and other natural items to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and Haleakalā National Park each year, fearing Pele’s Curse has brought them misfortune or bad luck, according to a Bryce Canyon Facebook post.

In 2001, the Los Angeles Times detailed the story of Timothy Murray, who believed he was cursed by Pele. Murray had taken some black sand from Hawaii back home to Florida and experienced some really bad luck, prompting him to send the sand back.

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So, did the tourist who took the rocks from Bryce Canyon suffer a bit of bad luck and, reflecting upon Pele’s Curse, feel the need to return them to appease a goddess from Bryce? It’s possible. Or perhaps they learned it was illegal.

“While no known legends exist for the unfortunate consequences of removing resources from Bryce Canyon, it is punishable by law,” the Utah park stated in its post. “It is also damaging to this fragile geologic formation. While taking a few rocks from the park may not seem like a big deal, imagine if all 2.5 million annual visitors to Bryce Canyon decided to do the same.”

The park gave assurance that the three rocks in question were returned to their natural habitat.

Photos courtesy of Bryce Canyon National Park.