Signage.....Really?

When we travel though the United States we are often enjoying special places and kinds of terrain we don't have in the Midwest. Mountains, canyons, cliffs, geysers.....all very exotic and fascinating. "Wow!" becomes a constant term in our everyday conversations.

We've also discovered some funny kinds of signage as we explore. I don't know if this happens as often in foreign countries, but we Americans (a litigious society) seem to need to label everything with warning signs. Don't go to close. Stay away from the edge. Wild animals are wild!

This trip we saw a couple that really struck me as odd. Visiting a small prairie home museum there was a sign that said "Don't feed the prairie dogs"....and I can understand that one. There was a colony of very light beige prairie dogs living there....the only one of that white-ish color in the world. So it makes perfect sense that they need to be protected and not become dependent on human food....which is probably not good for them anyway. But then, right down the path, was the caution "Don't touch the rattlesnakes."   Really? We need a reminder for that?

And then we were in Yellowstone and I was walking the boardwalk out to the Grand Prismatic Spring to check out the display. It was a narrow wooden boardwalk with numerous signs reminding people that the amazingly colorful bacterial layer was very fragile and would not support a person's weight. And just below that thin layer was very hot water! So it made sense to remind people not to touch or step off the walkway. I read the sign.....and ten steps later saw the hat. Now I'm pretty sure that a ranger did not actually step off and get "swallowed" by the hot spring....but the fact that his or her hat blew off and ended up where it did was a funny image....especially after just reading the signage.

And the last one was a reminder that there are bears in the area and visitors were NOT allowed to walk along the pathway at the side of the river. I read the sign and looked up to see four people meandering along the path right next to the water. They had to pass the sign to get there.

Ah well....maybe the did not read English and I haven't heard any horror stories of tourists at Yellowstone being attacked yet this year.

But people....really.....mind the signs!