Despite posted warnings and a verbal caution from a fellow visitor, one Yellowstone National Park visitor had to find out the hard way just how hot the park's iconic geothermal pools actually are.
A viral video shared on Tourons of Yellowstone's Instagram page captured a man and a woman standing on the edge of the hillside near the water's edge at Silex Spring on the Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail. The man recording states in the caption that, after warning the man and woman not to leave the boardwalk, their response was, "Whatever, man."
So naturally, he stood back, hit record, and watched Dwarnism at its finest unfold.
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The witness said he would have reported it to park rangers, but none were in sight at the time.
Since there is a slight incline, the woman gets down on her hands and knees to reach into the steaming water. The man recording the video, who had also warned them not to leave the boardwalk, can be heard saying, "Stupid."
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Once she is close enough to the steaming, boiling water, she rolls up her sleeves and dips her fingers into the water. As if that wasn't enough of a test, she decides to dip the toe of her shoe into the water as well.
That final trial must have been enough for her. She springs to her feet, running back to the boardwalk, saying, "It's hot! It's very hot!"
Of course, the no-brainer statement drew laughs from those who stopped to watch. The pool's average temperature sits around 174.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
Park officials are currently investigating this particular incident.
Yellowstone makes it very clear that park visitors are not to touch, swim, or soak in the hot springs. They even have a warning on their safety page stating, "Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs."
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time people have refused to heed the warnings. Officials say that over 20 people have died from their hot springs burns. Some willingly went in, while others fell.
During COVID lockdowns, after ignoring the park's closure, a woman fell into the water while taking a selfie. She was treated at a nearby ranger station. All that was found of another park visitor was their foot when it came floating to the surface.
Unfortunately, these incidents won't be the last. There is a pervasive lack of respect for the parks, and while nature can be beautiful, it can also be deadly. For some people, they have to find out the hard way.
While this is already illegal, some viewers discussed how these incidents should be handled in the future, with one writing, "People who choose to actively ignore rules and put animals and humans at risk should receive a lifetime ban from National Parks." Some in the comments felt a lifetime ban was a little on the "extreme" side of things, while others felt that the woman falling in and boiling would truly be an example of extreme.
But the original commenter states her case rather eloquently, "There are posted rules to not only protect people and animals but the ecosystem as well. People who believe they don't need to follow posted rules ruin what has, at times, taken hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of years to form (like cryptobiotic soil).
National Parks are protected for a reason, so I have no problem banning people who don't have respect for it."
It's a pretty hard philosophy to disagree with when you look at it that way.
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