Man Who Got Within Feet of Old Faithful Is Banned From Yellowstone for 5 Years

Video shows rare eruption of Steamboat geyser

A man who was cited for walking too close to Yellowstone’s Old Faithful was banned from entering Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks for five years, according to reports.

Gabriel Villalva, 27, of Colorado, entered a guilty plea of disorderly conduct and foot traffic on a thermal area in Yellowstone.

Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman sentenced him to five years of probation, and he can’t enter the parks, Helenair.com reported.

Videos showed Villalva standing several feet away from Old Faithful on Sept. 14. KDVR in Colorado reported that he was also accused of urinating into the geyser.

The man was later arrested in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during a police chase. His vehicle caught on fire in the incident.

A man who was cited for walking too close to Yellowstone’s Old Faithful was banned from entering Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks for five years, according to reports. Gabriel Villalva was charged and sentenced. Laramie County Sheriff’s Office

Police said that they used beanbag rounds to subdue Villalva in the chase, KTVB reported.

Old Faithful “currently erupts around 20 times a day and can be predicted with a 90 percent confidence rate within a 10 minute variation,” Yellowstone says on its website.

The water it shoots out is quite hot, and steam temperatures can get to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, the website says. If the geyser had erupted when Villalva was dangerously close to it, he likely could have been scalded with hot water and steam from the geyser.

“Stay a safe distance from thermal features and never leave the boardwalk to walk on a geyser’s fragile crust,” it adds. “Old Faithful can vary in height from 100-180 feet with an average near 130-140 feet. This has been the historical range of its recorded height. Eruptions normally last between 1.5 to 5 minutes,” the website reads.