Tourists Are Ruining Yellowstone National Park’s Geothermal Pool With Their ‘Good Luck’ Coins

Yellowstone National Park is well-known for its stunning landscapes. The lush greenery and beautiful hot springs at the park attract a huge number of people from across the world. The diverse wildlife also offers visitors a rare glimpse into nature's beauty. However, the very popular, colorful geothermal pool, the Morning Glory, has now been severely damaged due to a common trend. Tourists visiting there often toss coins into the park’s iconic pools for good luck, but this has threatened the pool's vibrant blue appearance. This proves that even small acts can have lasting consequences on these fragile wonders.

Morning Glory once mesmerized everyone with its deep, crystal-blue waters that gave the illusion of endless depth. It also earned its name from the vivid hue it once displayed. A historian, Alica Murphy, spoke about this and said, “There are some lovely quotes about its beauty and stunning blue colors, and likening it to the Morning Glory flower." However, as reported by Cowboy State Daily, the pool has now transformed over time, displaying rainbow hues—particularly shades of green and yellow—much like other pools in the park. It is because many visitors treated the park’s thermal pools as wishing wells.

Murphy said, “Wishing wells are a time-honored tradition. Flip a coin into a wishing well and make a wish. There is something about a pool of water that gives humans a weird instinct to throw things into it.” Former Yellowstone ranger Jeff Henry recalled that, years ago, the National Park Service regularly cleaned the pool by removing things thrown by people. Explaining the cleaning process, he said, “We used a couple of fire trucks to pump down the pool's water level and shoot it into the Firehole River. A guy was hooked up to a climbing harness so that he wouldn't fall into the pool, and he was out there with a long-handled net, fishing things out of the water far down into the crater of the pool.”

However, Henry also revealed that in recent years, there are far fewer coins in the pools when compared to the early days. He said, “The bottoms of the more accessible springs used to be paved with coins, but now it’s pretty rare to see anything thrown into the pools." The shift in pool color was also influenced by changes in the water’s temperature. As reported by The Independent, Mike Poland, a scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said, "Hotter pools tend to be a brilliant blue, and cooler pools can be more colorful since bacteria can grow there."

The water stays at around 159.3 degrees Fahrenheit on average. Meanwhile, in June last year, it was reported that the staff at a pub, The Fishpond, located in Derbyshire, warned their customers against throwing coins in the pond. It was allegedly because coins contain toxic zinc and nickel, responsible for the death of three of their fish. According to the pub's event manager, Liley Henderson-Hirst, the last pond clean-up removed coins worth £130 from the water, as reported by The Telegraph. So, the next time you’re tempted to toss a coin into a river or lake, think twice.