Yellowstone Visitor Ignores Warning Sign Near a Remote Geyser — and It Doesn't End Well For Him

Stepping inside Yellowstone National Park is like sallying forth on an adventure hunt. Dangers lurk everywhere. Despite the park's stunning beauty, one wrong step could lead to disaster. Notoriously steamy geysers and hot springs are bubbling with waters so scalding that they could swallow up a whole human in a matter of minutes. On July 28, a 17-year-old visitor slipped and tumbled down into the acidic waters of Lone Star Geyser and is now suffering from severe burns, according to a report shared by Yellowstone National Park (@yellowstonenps).

The incident unfolded in the park’s Lone Star Geyser, an impressive thermal feature sitting at the end of a remote trail across the southeast of Old Faithful. Surrounding the trail is the glimmering Firehole River that touches a clearing in the forest, per NPS. The geyser materializes into a 12-foot-tall cone-shaped mound of geyserite that constantly erupts jets of steam towering to a majestic 45 to 50 feet high. The thermophilic runoff emitted by the waters paints the geyser in shades of grey. The vents of Lone Star are exploding with piping hot waters, while its runoff, too, is swirling with dangerous microorganisms. 

The acids churning within the waters will make them disappear like they never existed. The ground itself sits atop a furnace of volcanoes that constantly spew toxic fumes and spurts of magma that excite the waters gurgling below, turning the thermal features of the park into simmering tea kettles that could burst any time. The report says that the 17-year-old victim was on a hike in the thermal area around the Lone Star when his foot broke through the thin crust, and the scorching waters singed his flesh with several burns. Instagrammers are quipping that the person deserves to be honored with a Darwin’s award, an internal honor awarded to people who supposedly help to improve the human gene pool by “removing themselves from it” with their stupid actions. 

The person suffered from significant thermal burns in his foot and ankle areas, per YourDictionary. The park revealed that this is the first thermal injury reported in Yellowstone in 2025. The last one occurred in September 2024. Medical staff transported the patient to the hospital, and the incident is under investigation. “Visitors! Stay safe in thermal areas. Boardwalks and trails protect you and delicate thermal formations. Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs,” the park wrote in the Instagram post, further adding a list of instructions for the visitors.

One instruction cautioned people to walk on boardwalks and designated trails, and to keep the children away from the boardwalks or thermal runoff. Dozens of tourists and visitors have lost their lives after suffering from the burns caused due to the searing waters of Yellowstone’s hot springs and geysers. Swimming or soaking is “prohibited." Additionally, since visitors tend to recklessly toss away objects like food wrappers, fruit peels, or discarded items in these waters, the instructions warned people not to throw away these objects in hot springs or other hydrothermal features. Sometimes, rambling too close to these areas could be a life-threatening scenario for the visitors. If you begin to feel sick, the park told the visitors, you should leave the spot immediately.

Instagrammer @maga_dog17 recommended people to read the book “Death in Yellowstone” by Lee Whittlesey before planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park. “Trust me, it might save your life,” they wrote. According to USGS, this book mentions numerous chronicles of history where Yellowstone’s visitors have suffered tragic deaths due to different dangers lurking around, from violent hot spring waters to poisonous gases, violently falling trees, and, not to forget, human errors. The treacherous waters have eaten up tons of these visitors while they were clicking selfies. All this is to say that if the wind rips off your hat and falls into a hot spring, let it go. Unlike a hat, you can’t be replaced.

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