Updated July 21, 2026, 5:11 p.m. ET
Visitors are supposed to stick to designated walkways around thermal features at Yellowstone National Park.
It’s not just for their own safety or the protection of the park’s famed, fragile resources. It’s also the law.
That didn’t seem to stop two recent tourists at Yellowstone’s largest hot spring.
Tanya Saueressig of Livingston, Montana, captured video of them walking on the colorful bacterial mats of the park’s iconic Grand Prismatic Spring on July 18.
“I did this double take like, this can’t be real … yep, that’s actually people out there,” she told USA TODAY. “And then I started getting scared for them because people have fallen into the thermal features.”
Yellowstone National Park dangers
Yellowstone National Park did not comment on the specific incident but told USA TODAY by email:
Burns from thermal features are a common cause of serious injury and death in the park. The ground surrounding these features may look solid, but it can be just a thin crust with super-heated water below. Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs.
Last year, a bison died after falling through the crust at Grand Prismatic Spring.
Saueressig feared the two visitors would, too, saying, “They don’t realize it’s not solid ground. There’s boiling hot water centimeters under your feet.”
Over the years, more than 20 people have died due to scalding at the park straddling Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, according to Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, which notes that hot springs-related injuries and deaths far eclipse wildlife-related incidents at Yellowstone.
The park’s website warns visitors that “Yellowstone is a dangerous place” and that visitors are responsible for their own safety, but those who break park rules can face punishment.
In 2024, a visitor from Washington state was sentenced to seven days in jail for thermal trespassing at Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. Others have been similarly sentenced.
Yellowstone safety tips
Signs throughout the park remind visitors of rules.
“And there’s illustrations for people that don’t speak the multiple languages that the signs and warnings (are) in,” Saueressig said.
Yellowstone also shared the following safety tips:
- Always walk on boardwalks and designated trails. Keep children close and do not let them run on boardwalks.
- Do not touch thermal features or runoff.
- Swimming or soaking in hot springs is prohibited.
- Pets are prohibited in thermal areas.
- Do not throw objects into hot springs or other hydrothermal features.
- Toxic gases may accumulate to dangerous levels in some hydrothermal areas. If you begin to feel sick while exploring one of our geyser basins, leave the area immediately.
On her frequent visits, Saueressig said she’s seen people do several of those things and more, including climbing over a fence for selfies.
“What bothers me the most when I am there is how careless people are with it,” she said of the park, which she calls her favorite place. “I just wish people would take better care of it.”
(This story has been updated with new information.)
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