PhHOTO: One of Yellowstone's many beautiful but dangerours thermal pools. (Photo by David Cogswell)

Oh boy, chalk up another miss in the pursuit of capturing photos for social media.

A group of four men touring Yellowstone National Park have been hit with a criminal complaint after stepping beyond Yellowstone’s clearly marked boardwalk in order to capture snaps of an off-limits geothermal feature. The men, travelling in a recreational vehicle with British Columbia license plates, were allegedly capturing images for their website and social media channels, “SundayFundayz.”

While Yellowstone posts signs and hands out literature warning visitors to stay on the marked pathways and boardwalk, the men were spotted by witnesses venturing some 25 metres beyond the pathway and touching the warm waters of Grand Prismatic Spring this past weekend. Later, for a short time, the images appeared on their website, although the photos have now been removed.

Park rangers have filed a criminal complaint against Charles Ryker Gamble, Alexey Andriyovych Lyakh and Justis Cooper Price-Brown, according to ABC.com. No word on why only three of the group of four face charges.

The SundayFundayz website now features an apology from the group, stating they sincerely apologize to the “Yellowstone park community and the public.”

“We have spent a year saving for and planning this project, the last thing we intended to do was to disrespect this beautiful place,” said the statement. “Quite the opposite. We have spent 75 days traveling the country and capturing its diverse beauty for the purpose of showcasing it to the world. We want to inspire others to go out and explore this vast land, to treat nature and our world with love and respect and to remind everyone watching to never take the wonders in their backyard for granted. This is what we stand for, this is who we are, with the purest of intentions we managed to screw up."

They further offered to donate $5,000 to the park and encourage their followers to post their favourite positive memory on the park’s Facebook page.

It’s been a busy week for rangers at Yellowstone. Earlier today, they announced they had to euthanize a baby bison that was put in an SUV by tourists because they thought it looked cold. 

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