Better just stick to the path around the Grand Prismatic Spring. (Photo: James St. John/CC BY 2.0)
Just because you’ve got an upbeat social media presence and enough money to travel around making Youtube videos of your sweet vacation doesn’t mean you get to go wherever you please, as the High On Life SundayFundayz crew recently found out after traipsing over Yellowstone Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring. An offense for which they are now facing criminal charges.
The SundayFundayz gang is made up of a trio of Youtubers, whose self-stated mission is to “ travel around the world for a living and make fun and adventurous videos! We also have a clothing company.” After meeting in high school, and reconnecting after college, the three have traveled the world, documenting their epic bro-downs in a series of videos. It was during their current “Great American Road Trip,” that they found themselves in Yellowstone National Park, and took upon themselves to stroll over the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in America, and a delicate geological marvel.
Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring is a massive boiling lake that is known for its vivid rainbow coloring, caused by the unique mix of geologic reactions at the site. But for all its beauty, it also spews hundreds of gallons of scaling liquid every minute. Visitors to the spring are kept to a designated boardwalk that keeps them safe from the boiling water, and keeps the natural environment safe from human damage. The High On Life boyz disregarded both concerns when they walked off the boardwalk towards the spring to get an up-close shot for their latest video.
However, when news of their trespassing reached authorities, they didn’t find the stunt quite so awesome. Three of the High On Life guys, Charles Ryker Gamble, Alexey Andriyovych Lyakh, and Justis Cooper Price-Brown have now been issued federal arrest warrants for, as the Bozeman Daily Chronicle put it, “creating a hazardous or physically offensive condition.” A fourth member of the group, Parker Heuser née Hamish McNab Campbell Cross, was not initially issued a warrant, but has since been equally charged for the offense.
While they have not been arrested, their social media has been buried in an avalanche of negative responses to their stunt, with a Change.org petition even popping up asking that their sponsorship be pulled. For their part, the boyz released a lengthy apology on Facebook, pledging to donate $5,000 to Yellowstone Park, saying, “We hope that our community will forgive us for our misstep and continue to see us as a source of positivity and inspiration as we continue to capture this life worth living.”
The SundayFundayz crew is assumed to have returned to Canada, where they are from, and U.S. authorities have stated that they would not be pursuing them, but it is hoped that they will return to the States to settle the matter. Maybe they could make a video about it.