A 60-year-old Yellowstone National Park tourist from New Hampshire suffered second- and third-degree burns Monday after walking off-trail over a geothermal crust, the park reports.
Visiting from Windsor, New Hampshire, the woman — who was not identified — her husband and leashed dog were walking in a thermal area near Mallard Lake Trailhead at the Old Faithful site, according to a YNP statement dispatched Wednesday.
The woman broke through a thin crust over scalding water and suffered burns to her leg. Her husband and dog were not hurt, the statement says.
The couple went to a park medical clinic, where personnel evaluated her, then arranged a helicopter flight for her to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
“Visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution,” the statement adds. “The ground in these areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface.”
YNP’s statement notes that pets aren’t allowed on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the back country or in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation, and the park says it has no additional information or photos to share.
The burns to the woman mark the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone this year.
Around This Time Last Year
A Michigan man was charged criminally in August 2023 with off-trail travel after sustaining thermal burns.
Aside from being illegal, the thermal pools in Yellowstone, which can reach scalding hot temperatures and be acidic, are also dangerous.
In August 2022, a man later identified as a tourist from Los Angeles, was nearly dissolved in a Yellowstone hot pool. Only his foot was found, which yielded the DNA needed to identify him.
In June 2023, another visitor got video of a pair of tourists who illegally left the boardwalk near a thermal pool and attempted to touch it.
The Yellowstone-based federal justice system often addresses interloping on thermals with some gravity. The court in 2021 sentenced a Connecticut man to a week in jail and imposed a $1,000 payment to preservation group Yellowstone Forever.
The court banned a Pennsylvania woman from the park for two years, gave her two years’ probation and imposed nearly $500 in fines and court costs, plus $107 in restitution, after her 2020 thermal-walking incident.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
