A 17-year-old tourist suffered “significant thermal burns” near the Lone Star Geyser in Yellowstone National Park on Monday.
According to a Tuesday statement from the park, the teenage male was on a hike in the Lone Star Geyser Basin 3 miles southeast of Old Faithful on Monday morning, when his foot broke through a thin crust at the edge of the thermal area.
His foot plunged into the scalding water, which can range in temperature from around 160 to 200 degrees, causing significant burns to his foot and ankle.
Emergency medical staff responded to the incident and transported the patient to an undisclosed hospital for further treatment. The incident is under investigation, and the park has no additional information or photos to share.
This is the first thermal pool-related injury in Yellowstone in 2025.
Boiling Hot
The Lone Star Geyser Basin consists of the Lone Star Geyser and a few smaller thermal pools, geysers and fumaroles along the Firehole River. It’s accessible via an old service road, but doesn’t have a boardwalk or other amenities like other geyser basins.
“Boardwalks and trails protect you and delicate thermal formations,” the park reports. “Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs.”
More than 20 people have died in Yellowstone’s hot springs in recorded history, usually after accidentally falling through thin geothermal crusts scattered throughout the park’s thermal basins.
It’s unknown if the victim Monday was hiking off-trail when the incident occurred.
The injuries and deaths from Yellowstone’s thermal pools are caused by the extremely hot water flowing into them. They aren’t the result of acidic burns, as many people believe.
“People think of the pools like alien blood or something like that,” Mike Poland, scientist in charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, told Cowboy State Daily in June. “That’s not the way the pools work. The big hot springs are almost all neutral, but they’re boiling. That’s what causes harm to people and animals.”
Life Threatening
The last incident of a person sustaining serious injuries from a Yellowstone thermal pool was in September 2024. A 60-year-old tourist from New Hampshire was walking off-trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead when she fell through a geothermal crust.
The woman suffered second- and third-degree burns on her leg. She was transported to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls via helicopter for treatment.
Earlier this year, several tourists witnessed a bison falling off the edge of Grand Prismatic Spring. It quickly died from the injuries it sustained in the 160-degree water.
Walking off-trail in a thermal basin is not only dangerous but also illegal.
In August 2023, Jason Wicks of Hillman, Michigan, was charged criminally with off-trail travel after sustaining thermal burns in a thermal area in Yellowstone. He was allegedly under the influence of drugs or alcohol when the incident occurred.
In August 2022, a human foot was found floating in the Abyss Pool in the West Thumb Geyser Basin. DNA analysis confirmed the foot belonged to II Hun Ro, 70, of Los Angeles, who was last seen alive in Yellowstone on July 7, 2022.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
