Yellowstone Bans Man Who Tried Cooking Chickens in Park’s Hot Springs

Well, there’s a headline you don’t see every day.

A poultry enthusiast from Idaho was fined and banned from Yellowstone National Park for two years after allegedly cooking chickens in one of the park’s many hot springs.

The man, who was not named in the report, pleaded guilty in September to violating foot travel rules in a thermal area and violating closures and use limits, according to the East Idaho News.

Each charge carried with it a fine of $600, the report said. The suspect was also sentenced to two years probation, during which time he is banned from Yellowstone National Park.

Park rangers first became aware of the violations after they received reports that a small group, cooking pots in tow, were seen trekking toward the Shoshone Geyser Basin.

The responding ranger discovered the group with two chickens in a burlap sack simmering in the hot spring. Each member of the group, including a child, was questioned and ordered to leave the area, the report said.

There currently exist, by many accounts, a plethora of means to cook a chicken that do not involve gallivanting around national park land and risking life and limb.

Yellowstone boasts thousands of thermal features and active geysers that can make enforcing hydrothermal-related rules difficult for park officials, but when violations are committed, ramifications can often be fatal, National Park Service officials said.

Fortunately for the pollo posse, no hunger-related injuries occurred aside from the brain cells that faded into oblivion along the way.