MAMMOTH, WYOMING: A video showing a tourist dipping her fingers in the scalding waters of the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park recently went viral on social media. In the clip, a man and woman can be seen defying park restrictions and walking down a boardwalk at Silex Spring on the Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail in Wyoming to stand at the edge of the 174-degree Fahrenheit hydrothermal pool.
The woman can then be seen crouching down on the ground and rolling up her sleeves before dipping the fingers of her right hand and the tip of her shoe into the hot spring while clutching onto the man with her other hand. Immediately after touching the water, the woman could be seen flinching away and running back toward the boardwalk yelling, “It’s hot! It’s very hot!” The person filming the video can be heard mumbling “stupid” to another visitor referring to the tourist’s action.
The footage shared on Instagram by @/TouronsOfYellowstone went viral online and prompted netizens to call out the tourist. The original video was posted on the platform with a caption that read, “Ok I would have called these people in but couldn’t find a ranger or service but here’s a guy and I’d presume his daughter at what I thought said Silex spring in fountain paint pot trail I told him that was a bad idea and they shouldn’t get off the board walk. His response was “whatever man”. So I hit record.”
‘They should earn a lifelong ban’
The internet was quick to react to the viral video and took to Instagram to call out the tourists seen on the footage. “People need to be fined! This is enough!!” one wrote. “It's always the people that have no business in nature doing the dumb sh*t,” another said. “I wish people understood that it’s not just about the risk their making of their own lives, but they’re also interfering with a delicate ecosystem. If you can’t enjoy things in a look but not touch fashion when it’s appropriate, you’re not mature enough to vacation in places like this. Just go to Vegas or something,” a third added.
“Those 2 are the reason why there's directions on shampoo bottles,” one mocked. “Because she couldn’t live her life without touching the hot spring? Smh,” added another. One stated, “FFS they don’t deserve Yellowstone,” while another commented, “’It’s very hot’ as if the steam rising from said body of water wasn’t enough evidence. Go play in traffic next time.” “They should earn a lifelong ban from all national & state parks. This is probably just the first time they were caught on film performing for the Darwin Awards,” one user said.
“These people should be banned from all national parks. Their license plate should have been turned into the park rangers and then they should be charged and banned. Such morons. Despicable behavior to say whatever man when someone is telling you to stop what you’re doing. Sometimes in these situations I wish the worst would happen to them. Maybe it would make more people scared to do the same thing, or maybe all people should read death in Yellowstone before visiting the park,” another explained. “100% agree with the comment that people who choose to actively ignore rules, and put animals and humans at risk should receive a lifetime ban from National Parks,” stated another user.
Regulations at Yellowstone hot springs
The Yellowstone National Park strictly prohibits users from touching, swimming or soaking in hot springs. “Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs,” the National Park Service’s safety page for Yellowstone warns. “Deep beneath your feet, heat from the molten rock of the earth’s interior is transmitted up through the solid rock of the earth’s crust,” the page continues.
“Ground water circulating through these rocks becomes heated and follows cracks and fissures upward. Where the hot water can escape the ground’s surface, a hot spring is formed,” it further adds. Despite the warnings, many visitors have flouted restrictions while visiting the popular tourist attraction. More than 20 people have died from burns after falling into or entering Yellowstone’s hot springs, the agency reported, as per the New York Post.
Previous tragedies
In 2022, part of a human foot inside a shoe was seen floating at Yellowstone’s Abyss Pool, a 53-foot-deep hot spring with water reaching 140 degrees. In October 2021, a 20-year-old woman ran into a hot spring to rescue her dog. While the dog died from its injuries, the woman suffered severe burns. That same year, a 19-year-old suffered third-degree burns over 5% of her body after visiting the Old Faithful geyser. Park rangers believe another man dissolved in the hot springs in 2016 after attempting to soak in a thermal area for a practice known as “hot potting.”
