Man charged for driving around geyser

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

A Washington man is facing federal charges for, among other offenses, spinning "doughnuts" in a Yellowstone National Park geyser area with his pickup truck.

Adam R. Elford, 22, of Vancouver, with an unnamed male companion, allegedly drove around a locked barrier, negotiated a foot and bicycle path in his truck for 2.5 miles, dismantled a second barrier, then drove erratically on the fragile soil called "sinter" that surrounds Lone Star Geyser.

The incident occurred Oct. 10, but the National Park Service did not release the information until Tuesday.

Elford drove across the geyser's drainage channel to the Firehole River and circled the geyser's cone, driving at least a quarter mile, according to a complaint sworn by Dan Kirschner, a federal special agent for the Park Service.

At one point, Elford's companion got out of the truck, the complaint says, while Elford "drove towards the river and spun two circles (doughnuts)."

Then he mired his truck "up to its frame" in a wet spot created by the geyser's overflow.

Then, Elford told rangers, he broke out the booze.

"Elford admitted to drinking some alcoholic beverages after getting stuck," the complaint says. "He denied drinking while driving."

The two men couldn't get the truck out of the mud, but ignited some logs and garbage with white gas to build a fire. It was cold and they were afraid of bears, they told rangers.

The companion said Elford fired a .22-caliber rifle once during the night "to scare away bears."

They laid out a tarp on the wet sinter, but didn't get much sleep, they said, because of the cold and their fear of bears.

The next day, they walked five miles to the Old Faithful area and found a man and woman who agreed to help them. The couple took the two men back to the geyser, but then said they couldn't help extract the truck.

Elford and his companion then went to the ranger station at Old Faithful "and reported their situation."

The companion explained his fear of bears and "showed tracks in the area that he said were bear tracks," the complaint says. "The tracks he showed were their boot prints sliding in the mud."

Once rangers figured out what had happened, they threw Elford in the West Yellowstone jail and cited him for driving off road in the park, injuring resources, having a loaded gun in a car, improper food storage, and driving with a suspended driver's license.

The companion also was cited, but his charges were not released.

The two told rangers they had left the road because they were "looking for wildlife."

Elford admitted he had been driving the 2000 Toyota Tacoma pickup.

"I don't let anyone else drive my truck," he told rangers.

Elford is free on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond, but the vehicle was impounded as evidence. The men face potentially heavy fines and the U.S. attorney in Cheyenne "will seek full restitution from the two individuals for all restoration costs," the Park Service said.

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