Do people really scatter loved ones' ashes in amusement parks?

You can scatter human ashes at a national park. To do it legally, however, you need a special permit. You can also float those remains in a public body of water, but regulations apply there, too. Typically, you need to be a significant distance from shore so that the ashes dissipate before reaching land (and other people), and you have to report your act to the appropriate government organization.

Skirting the rules and scattering ashes in an unapproved way is sometimes called wildcat scattering. For some people, it's an act of liberation and a way to deal with grief. For the people who encounter the remains, it's something else entirely.

It's not that cremated remains are dangerous. Because of the crazy high heat used to burn bodies (often more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, or 815 Celsius), the final ashes are considered to be a sterile substance.

For a lot of people, though, there's a yuck factor associated with encountering human ashes (and sometimes teeth) in random locations. That goes double for folks who hit the amusement park for a day of fun and end up coughing on the windblown ashes of your mother-in-law.

Yet a lot of bereaved people can't help but want to take those ashes out for one last adventure, like an amusement park trip. And when it comes to amusement parks, some are more popular than others.

It goes almost without saying that Disneyland's public stance on ash scattering is flat-out denial. The official company line is that ashes have never been scattered there, it's illegal to do so, and Mickey Mouse and company would really appreciate it if you'd never, ever do it because the idea of dead people ashes and joyful Disney characters mixing on their grounds doesn't really make for the best marketing campaign.

So why would people defy Mickey's orders and insist on scattering ashes at the Disneyland and other amusement parks? Perhaps because those lively, fun places seem like the antithesis of the grim finality of death.

In spite of laws against such behavior, otherwise law-abiding people can't seem to stop themselves from spreading ashes at amusement parks. Doing so generally means concocting a plan to spread the ashes surreptitiously so as to avoid detection by security guards.

In developing that plan, the bereaved often conduct a lot of online research at amusement park chat forums. On these forums it's clear that not only do a lot of people plot amusement park cremation ceremonies, but they really do carry them out, too.

As they chat with like-minded people, they'll ask whether certain parks allow ash spreading, and when they find out it's impossible to do legally, many pursue the idea, anyway. They'll ask other users how they managed to scatter ashes without getting caught and tips on how best to execute their own mission.

At Disneyland, attractions such as the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean seem to be particularly popular with parkgoers. They hop into the ride car, wait for the right moment and then let loose with the ashes.

Sometimes they get off scot-free, and the only evidence is a pile of ashes that is subsequently swept up and disposed of. Other times, security personnel witness people releasing powdery substances via surveillance cameras.

In those cases, amusement parks obviously take every precaution to ensure the safety of the riders. They'll shut down the attraction, attempt to find the person who did the deed and then thoroughly clean up the mess. In some cases, particularly on water rides, the evidence swirls away, never to be seen again (unless it clogs a water filter).

Every amusement park has security cameras, of course, and if someone's caught dumping ashes there's always a question of what to do with the offender. In many situations, security personnel may admonish the rule breaker but let him or her off without any sort of punishment. Most simply look the other way, opting for compassion over punitive action.

That said, you'll probably never see a news headline about an amusement park pursuing legal action against a grieving family. The negative public reaction would be predictable and not beneficial to the park's bottom line. So the act of jettisoning human remains at such parks will probably continue, on the sly and away from the public eye. So in spite of the rules, grandpa will have his endless rollercoaster rides, zipping around and around into eternity. Or simply disposed of by the park's cleanup crew.