Ever Seen A Yellowstone Ranger Fishing In A Geyser?
Millions of visitors come to Wyoming to check out Yellowstone National Park every year, and every year there are interesting stories that come out of those visits.
You can only imagine the number of items that are lost every year at the park. Normally the items aren't left behind on purpose. There are a ton of reasons why someone could leave something behind. Sat it down and forgot it, didn't get packed up at the campsite, kid threw it out the window, or maybe the Wyoming Wind blew it away and you couldn't catch it.
That seems to be the case in this video below. While at Excelsior Geyser, a visitor's hat blew into the dormant geyser. Lucky for the visitor, a park ranger happened to be in the close by and grabbed his fishing pole to help the visitor out.
A video that was captured by Yellowstone Teton Tours, shows the ranger casting to retrieve the hat.
Good news for you if you've lost something in the park and you only realized it when you got home. Yellowstone has a lost and found form that you can fill out to see if someone has turned your item in.
According to Yellowstone National Park Lodges, in 2021 there were 777 items reported lost and 4,390 items found. Once a week lost items are collected and taken to Gardiner, MT where there's actually a whole warehouse that's dedicated to items that have been found in the park.
Lost and found items will remain in the warehouse for 90 days, then they're sorted into donation bins. Some items are given to local organizations to be put to good use. Found eyeglasses will be given to the Lions Club, towels to local ambulances, toys, blankets and clothes go to area missions.
So if you lose something in Yellowstone and really want it back, make sure to check in with the parks lost and found system.