Jon

I take risks sometimes, but I like to think I've calculated the odds and adequately prepared first. I think there are a large number out there, however, who are oblivious to the existence of real danger.

I'm not talking about fear of flying or staying home to avoid terrorism because of sensational news stories -- the odds are tremendously in your favor. I'm talking about real danger.

By all means, take your children to national parks and the like, but also recognize you're not at Disneyworld or the zoo. The animals are not tame. Over and over, I see parents encouraging their children -- even toddlers -- to pet, pose with, play with, and chase wild animals. Otherwise sane looking people wade in the rapids above a waterfall and hang over the edge of a cliff with no safety equipment, training or ability, just a lack of awareness.

What travel behavior have you seen that bordered on the suicidal/homicidal?

Marilyn

On a recent visit to the Grand Canyon, seeing people (despite the warnings posted)climb rocks down the sides of the canyon.

Bob Brown

I have 3 episodes I wish to cite. Two were in Yellowstone, the third was in a campground along the Blue Ridge flashlight.

#1. A female carrying a small child approached a huge male bison. Her intent was to place the child on the bison's back so she could take a picture of the child sitting on the creature.

#2. A homo sapiens [sic] male, nicely pot bellied, walked up to a male bison that was blocking the path between Old Faithful and Castle Geyser. He attempted to shove the bison out of the way.

#3. One night I was camping along Blue Ridge Parkway. A fellow ran up to me and wanted to borrow my flashlight. I asked him what for? He said, "We got bear cub treed over there and want to take a look at him." My response:
"Where is Mama?" About that time Mama appeared, totally unappreciative of the attention her child was receiving. She quickly let the surrounding population know of her displeasure.

Bob Brown

OOps. I was disturbed while writing the above posting. It of course should be Blue Ridge Parkway and not flashlight. I guess I should be extra careful to re-read my writing, particularly after having my train of thought disrupted.

Decent Tropical

When will people learn??!!

Maira

An episode comes to mind that still to this day I don't know what to make of it. It happened in Yosemite National Park. An (estimated) 4 yr. old climbed a rock and was walking too close to a cliff in a completely unsupervised situation. My husband jumped and grabbed her, while I looked around for her parents. The girl was Asian, so it somewhat easy for me to narrowed it down to this couple who were distracted talking pictures nearby. When I approached them and told them what had happened, they gave my husband & me the dirtiest look, said something very sternly that we did not understand, grabbed the little girl by the arm and left.

Oftentimes, parents are worse than their children.

raeona

Wow...hard to believe how truly brainless some folks are! My examples are more innoucuous I guess, but still leave me shaking my head. We live in a popular resort area...What gets me are the urban folk who "just don't get" rural living and walk down the busy highway w/o a care in the world...and in the wrong direction, letting traffic come up from behind them, rather than walking (on the shoulder, please!) towards oncoming traffic. Also, the bicyclists who are all over the road, heedless of the fact that traffic is travelling (at least) 55 mph on the same road...or the family group I saw this week, on a fairly well-traveled highway, with a Dad who had a kid on the bike seat behind him and also was hauling one of those baby trailers. Who in their right mind would pull their most precious possession in a baby bike/trailer on a 55 mph highway???

Paul Rabe

In two separate zoos in Europe, we saw parents lift their children over fences in order to feed animals. No danger of death, but an animal bite is nothing to look forward to.

AJ

Swimming negligence is what gets my goat. In my own swimming pool, my kids tease me that I am the pool police. Even when I know that all the kids can swim, I am constantly counting heads. One sighting of the stupid and insane happened last year, when at a neighborhood barbecue, one mother who couldn't swim, carried her two year old who also couldn't swim to the deep end, so that she could catch her 6 year old, as he slid down the poolslide. The 6 year old, you guessed it, ALSO COULD NOT SWIM. It took me a moment to realize that all three went under, but no one came up. We fished them all out, and the mother couldn't understand why I was angry.

Another sighting occured in Ixtapa Mexico, where the red beach flags are always waving due to rip tides and big surf. Normal people would position one parent oceanside and straight out, and the second parent oceanside and downtide. The kids would play between the beach and the parents. Well, mom and dad were knee deep in surf while the 12 year was a good 50 feet past the breakers, directly in front of mom and dad, but not for long. The riptide carried him about 1-1/2 miles down the beach and out another 50 feet or so, before he was able to grab a safety line.

These examples seem to be nature's way of weeding out the stupid.

Kim

I marvelled at all of the signs in Custer State Park, Sout Dakota, stating that bison are wild animals and not to approach them. You know that too often some idiot was saying something like, "Hey honey! Look at me with the buffalo! Ahhhhhhh!", in order for them to need to put up the signs. People must think they're in a Disney movie.

Brian in Atlanta

I once saw 2 people ask the waiter if they could share a single steak at Peter Luger's.

Dave

An annual tragedy - non-swimmers wading in the ocean surf... just to their ankles... so they can have a photo taken. At times it is the last picture of their life.

April

My favourite was told to me at Johnstone Canyon of parents giving their child a chocolate bar to hand feed the wild bear so they could get a photo.

Speaking of bears, I wish I could remember the statistic but it went something like - if you were 10 yards away from your car and a bear was 100 yards away and you both ran toward the car, the bear would win. With this in mind, I'm amazed to see people, particularly in the Banff region, creeping closer and closer to bears on the roadside in an attempt to get a photograph. Somehow they usually get away with it.

It also amazes me to see people wandering all over the glaciers next to giant cracks that they could so easily slip into and disappear forever.

Ruth

Every year we have at least a couple of "the stupid and insane" plunge off Grandfather Mountain and Blowing Rock here in the North Carolina mountains. People think the cautions are FOR SOMEONE ELSE!

Young and Stupid

One of my favourite photos is taken on the trans-canada highway. The boys had a rental car, everyone standing on top of the car, stopped on the highway in front of a big sign that said
"NO STOPPING, AVALANCE AREA"
The lads back home in New Zealand always get a big kick out of that photo.

stfc

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7400367.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...re/7403359.stm

Do you get tombstoning in the US? It seems to be an increasing craze among young and drunk immortals here in the UK. Two otherwise fit young men crippled for life last week.

Cassandra

Drives me buggy to see people climbing over barriers and ignoring signs warning them not to go out on cliffs and rocks high over the ocean or a river canyon.

Have seen parents do that and beckon to their children to join them, and have on occasion been known to do the meddling-old-lady thing of saying "yer not supposed to be out there, it's dangerous for you young whippersnappers!" More often, I just can't watch.

november_moon

We frequently see people at Lassen Volcanic national park hop the railings so they can go over to the bubbling mud pots and steaming holes in the ground. I haven't seen anyone fall in, but there is an area in the park called Bumpass Hell, named after a guy who fell through the thin crust on top of the ground and was badly burned.

gail

Free range children at the Grand Canyon.

SusanSDG

Japanese tourists walking backward toward the rim of the Grand Canyon while partner takes pictures.