Despite Yellowstone National Park's warnings that geothermal features have claimed more than 20 lives over the years, people continue to approach them too closely so that they can experience touching the hot springs.
Growing Trend Among Visitors
Visitors were captured on camera burning their hands in a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.
Meeka Vigue's July 13 Instagram video depicts vacationers scalding their hands as they bend down to touch the thermal spring. They hastily turn aside while shaking their hands to ward off the burn.
The visitors especially were talking about how another visitor got in trouble the week before. They quickly chimed that the visitor he gained a life experience and seemed to be in awe of the violation. Later, the group followed suit.
Vigue was in disbelief at what she witnessed and could only describe the behavior as "disrespectful."
Vigue further claimed that fines encourage young people to simply pay to have an experience or make a life statement. Vigue thinks that people shouldn't simply gamble their futures out of curiosity.
Dangers of Geothermal Features
Yellowstone National Park has around 10,000 geothermal features. The park has the highest density of hot springs, mud pots, geysers, and steam vents in the entire globe. The park is situated on a hydrothermal system, where magma continuously bubbles beneath the surface, which explains this.
The National Park Service cautions visitors against getting too close to these hot springs because they can be quite harmful. More people have been hurt or killed by hot springs in Yellowstone than by any other natural phenomenon.
Visitors are advised to keep children near and not let them run. Tourists are also warned not to touch the geothermal features in any way by the service. Yellowstone National Park urges tourists to follow the prescribed path so that both they and the park are protected via its social media accounts.
Since more than 20 people have suffered burns and died from swimming in or falling into the hot springs, approaching them from a crouch can be quite risky.
Deaths in Yellowstone
Hot springs may hit temperatures of 198° Fahrenheit, while steam vents can reach a temperature of 275° F. Death can occur in a mere few minutes after falling into a hot spring in just a few minutes.
A human foot fragment and a shoe were discovered in one of the park's hot springs in August of last year.
On August 16, 2022, a park employee discovered the remains at the Abyss Pool in Yellowstone's southern region. A man passed away in 2016 after plunging into a hot spring and being dissolved in acidic water before this incident.
Although Yellowstone National Park is a very well-liked tourist site, there are a few guidelines that visitors must follow to keep themselves safe. This applies to staying away from wildlife as well as hot springs.
Wild animals like bison, bears, and wolves inhabit the park. The NPS advises people to stay at least 25 yards away from all the animals, except for the latter two, from which 100 yards should be maintained. NPS equated the length of 25 yards to that of two buses on their website, while the length of 100 yards is similar to eight buses.
Visitors do, however, occasionally disregard these regulations. After many incidences involving humans approaching the potentially dangerous bison were made public, the NPS issued a warning to tourists in June.
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