A summer trip to the great outdoors for one Colorado family has turned into a great big mess. 62-year-old Joseph Aita and others he was traveling with accidentally and unknowingly went off the beaten path at Yellowstone National Park, and now the Department of Justice is bringing the hammer down on him.

"If we had seen the sign or anybody warning us, you know ‘hey! hey! hey!’” Aita recalled. “But nothing that I saw gave me that immediate flag.”

A Colorado man was sentenced to jail and banned from Yellowstone National Park after officials say he walked off a designated trail and entered a protected area.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo. - Yellowstone National Park is seeing more visitors. The park hosted 346,025 recreation visits in October 2024, a 16% increase from October 2023 (299,127 recreational visits). This October's visitation showed a 9% increase from October 2021 (316,662 recreation visits).

While the 63 national parks across the U.S. delight visitors with scenery and wildlife not found anywhere else, untapped nature also poses many dangers — particularly for those who wander off the official trails.