Yellowstone Tourons: The Shocking and Outrageous Behavior of Park Visitors Revealed!

They're called Yellowstone Tourons - selfish, irresponsible "tourist morons" whose disdain of the Yellowstone National Park rules puts themselves and wildlife at risk. Their outrageous behavior makes the news almost weekly. And this week on Episode 455 of the RV Podcast, we talk to a ranger at Yellowstone National Park about a rash of these “Touron” incidents - and what responsible visitors can do to help park rangers deal with the problems. Plus… expert tips on maintaining the critical safety detectors on your RV Welcome news of lower gas prices in the near future Reports on too close encounters with bears And RV News, travel information, and your RV Lifestyle questions. You can watch the video version from our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel by clicking the player below. If you prefer an audio-only podcast, you can hear us through your favorite podcast app or listen now through the player below. SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ - Wendy Bowyer Wendy Bowyer reports on the hot issues most talked about this past week on our RV Lifestyle Facebook Group: One post that really caught people's attention last week was from John. John took a picture of his awning that hadn't been cleaned in five years. As you can imagine, it was pretty stained and dirty. John bought a Magic Eraser mop and cleaned a section of it and showed everyone the before and after. People loved it! Some asked specific questions about the Magic Eraser mop. Others shared what they use to successfully clean their awnings. Some use a product called Awesome, sold at dollar stores, and others use a homemade combo with Dawn dish soap, a dash of bleach, and water. Others said to prevent the mold in the first place, always make sure your awning is dry before storage. Lots of helpful tips in that post, with hundreds and hundreds of shares and comments. Angie had quite the scare last week. The very second she stepped outside her camper last week, what did she see but a BLACK BEAR! She said the bear came up from the side of her RV, completely freaked her out, and she ran right back in. Can you imagine? She was camping in Helen, Georgia, and her post led to a big long conversation of what others would do if they came face to face with a black bear. And do you know, quite a few RV Lifestyle Facebook members have! Rhonda said one time she was camping at Glacier National Park, came out of the camper, turned, and there, under the slide out, was a black bear just 6 feet away! She said she gasped so loudly she scared the poor thing. The bear actually jumped, its eyes grew big and it ran away! Josh said he had a black bear walk up to him in the Smokies two years ago. He said it was amazing how something so big could be so quiet. The encounter was the scariest experience of his life. Then, I'll leave you with a picture and a"public service announcement". Teresa snatched a picture of her dog, a Blue Heeler, poking his head through the window of her rig and wrote: "Public Service Announcement: Fifth Wheel screens are not Blue Heeler proof." The picture was adorable and many said their dogs poke their heads through the screens of their campers, too. Who knew?? Many shared pictures - which were fun to see! RV RECIPE OF THE WEEK - Jerrica Mah Time now for the RV Recipe of the Week, brought to you by CampingFoodRecipes.com Here's the editor of CampingFoodRecipes.com, outdoor enthusiast and lifelong foodie enthusiast Jerrica Mah: Campfire Nachos Recipe Hey Camping Foodies, Jerrica here with CampingFoodRecipes.com, and this week I have a crowd pleaser for you. The recipe of the week is Campfire Nachos, and if you've ever had them before, you know they disappear quickly around the campfire. They're really fun to make. You can toss in any ingredients you want with the chips and cheese, cook them over the campfire, and then we all dig in straight from the skillet. But what we've done for you is we've created a loaded campfire nacho recipe with all of our favorite ingredients and clear instructions on how to make it perfectly every time. It's all about the layering. As you layer the ingredients, you ensure each chip is full of toppings with every bite. Be sure to check out that recipe. We're also adding more recipes every week, including ones you can cook over the campfire, grill, or in your RV. There are so many great options that'll make planning your next camping menu a breeze. Make sure to visit campingfoodrecipes.com, chow down on those campfire nachos, and don't forget to submit your favorite camping food recipe through our site. We're incredibly grateful for the people who have sent in their recipes. It's a real treat to share your favorites. RV INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK - Dealing with the Yellowstone Tourons Our guest is Linda Veress, a ranger and spokesperson for Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone National Park is on just about every RVers' bucket list. With its iconic landscapes, rich history, and abundant wildlife, the park drew nearly 3.3 million visitors last year and really is a place like no other. But one thing we have noticed especially this summer season, is there seems to be more and more incidents making the news of visitors doing some really foolish things placing themselves - and in some cases Yellowstone's wildlife - in danger. The locals and those of us concerned about the irresponsible, ignorant, and often dangerous behavior have used the term “Tourons,” a combination of tourist and moron. Today to talk about what is safe, what is not safe, and what to do if you see someone doing the latter, is Linda Veress, a Yellowstone ranger and spokesperson. Welcome Linda! Mike: It seems that this has been a crazy year. I mean, almost every day we're hearing something about some foolish action that visitors are taking. Is it more now than before or is it just that we’re hearing about it more? Linda Veress: Yeah, it's hard to say. It's hard to say compared to previous years because now that we have these different websites and social media and then people have their cell phones and they're taking photos and sharing. So it's hard to say whether these things happened before or if there's a significant increase this year. But I can say that these things probably happen every day - Lots of incidents that we might not even know about. Mike: Give us a sense of what happens out there on a daily basis? Linda Veress: I'd say probably the two that I've been hearing a lot about this year, and it happens other years as well, would be wildlife. People just getting too close to wildlife and maybe turning their backs and taking selfies, not paying attention. I think that's the main thing is just being too close or not being aware of their surroundings and that there are maybe elk cows with calves nearby, just not paying attention to what they're doing. The other thing that we see are people wanting to touch the thermal features, throw things into them, get off of the boardwalks so they can get a better photo with the thermal pool or geyser in the background. Mike: When we talk about thermal features, I don't think people understand just how hot they are. Maybe you could give us a little bit of a reality check here. Linda Veress: People have died in the thermal features before. And it's hard to tell how hot it is. It could be a couple hundred degrees. It could also be very acidic. A casual visitor to the park might not know the properties of the water. And one of the things would be, you could look at a beautiful pool for instance, and it just looks very calm, serene. Some of them are gorgeous blue or green, and it kind of entices people to come up and get a closer look. But the second thing, touch it, it could be a couple hundred degrees, very acidic. And surrounding the pool is a very fragile area. So with someone's weight on it, it could break through and the person can fall into the pool and die. Mike: I've often wondered, do animals ever wander into those pools? Linda Veress: Sometimes they do, but they've got a good survival instinct. So they know to stay away from it, but it can happen. Mike: You did find, did you not, a leg and a foot last year in, in one of those pools, in one of the thermal ponds? Linda Veress: Yeah. We did, we did. There were some visitors in that geyser basin at West Thumb and they saw a shoe come up. And sometimes we see things that will float up in the pools just because people like throwing things into them. But as Park Staff fished it out, they did find human remains inside the shoe. So we did launch an investigation and identified the person. We don't really know what happened because that person was there alone and it was unwitnessed. So we don't know, but that individual did die in the pool. Mike: Yeah, that's how hot it is and acidic it is. Now, back to the animals, which I think is a huge, that's why many people come to Yellowstone to see the animals. I mean, we've seen pictures now of somebody trying to take a selfie petting a bison. And I guess we need to go over those rules a little bit. How far do you need to be from each of the different species that we see at Yellowstone? And I guess what are the consequences? Because these are wild animals. This isn't a Walt Disney movie here. This is their home. Linda Veress: Exactly, exactly. I think a lot of people, you know, they're not used to seeing wild animals in their neighborhoods. And as they were traveling through the park, the animals are used to people to a certain extent as well. You know, they might be peacefully grazing, resting, sleeping, standing, and they look calm. They are wild and they're managed as wildlife here in the park, they can be very unpredictable and for the most part it's like if you stay a certain distance away they won't feel threatened.