A woman screamed in pain after she put her hand on purpose into a boiling hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. This is just the latest disturbing example of people acting foolishly in one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations.
In the Fountain Point Pot Area of the park, a father and daughter who have not been named ignored safety rules and walked around the boardwalk that kept people away from the boiling hot Silex Spring. The normal temperature of the hot springs in the National Park is about 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gary Mackenzie, a cameraman, said he told the father and son to stay on the pier, but the father allegedly told him, “Whatever, man.”
Mackenzie said, “So I hit record.”
The video, which was shared to the Instagram account @TouronsofYellowstone, shows water flowing from a beautiful blue spring as a woman twists and turns to find the best way to put her hand in the boiling water.
Off-camera, a woman tells Mackenzie that she will “regret” her choice, as Mackenzie holds her dad’s hand and leans toward the spring.
After briefly putting her hand in the clear blue water, she quickly leans back, scrambles to her feet, and runs away yelling, “It’s hot!” It’s a lot of heat!’
Her cries of pain can be heard as she walks back onto the pier with her hand on her stomach.
Mackenzie said he would have stopped the two, but he couldn’t find a ranger and didn’t have cell service at the time.
On its website and on the trail, the National Park Service tells all tourists to stay away from hot springs and stay on the boardwalk at all times.
“The molten rock deep inside the earth sends heat up through the solid rock of the earth’s shell. When groundwater flows through these rocks, it gets hot and rises through cracks and openings. “A hot spring forms where hot water can get out of the ground,” the NPS said.
A foot in a shoe was found in a hot spring in the park last year.
The find was made at Abyss Pool in Wyoming, which caused “the West Thumb Geyser Basin and its parking lot to be closed for a while. Park” officials say that Abyss Pool is 53 feet deep and about 140F. It is west of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. It’s on the south side of the park’s southern loop.
It’s not clear how long the foot has been in the hot spring, but it was found two months after the park closed in June because of heavy rains that caused rivers in northern Wyoming and southern Montana to flood.