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A woman who illegally entered Yellowstone National Park fell into a hot spring while attempting to take a selfie. Yellowstone National Park has been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The woman was using her phone to take a photograph, stepping backwards and trying to get a good angle. In this attempt, she slipped and fell directly into a very hot spring near the Old Faithful geyser.
This resulted in her being severely burned. She managed to somehow escape the hot spring and climbed back into her car. Hopefully she got a good cellular deal on her phone, as it was likely destroyed in the fall. The woman then managed to evade park rangers for some fifty miles or more while still suffering from her injuries.
Following the chase, she was carried by helicopter to a hospital for treatment. By Wednesday, the park had made no update on the woman’s status or injuries. Despite news outlets reaching out for comment, the park has, at the time of this writing, not elaborated on the situation.
When it is open to visitors, Yellowstone is known as a dangerous place for guests to just wander. There are numerous acidic thermal vents open to the air in the park. This allows for some stunning views of geothermal activity. However, it’s also very dangerous for those who wander off the approved path.
Park guides will often point to the boardwalks built for guest safety. These show the paths that visitors should stay on to avoid injury or death in the thermal vents. Last Fall, a man suffered similar burns to the woman burned on Tuesday. He wandered off of a boardwalk and fell directly into a vent near Old Faithful.
In 2016, a 23-year-old man named Colin Scott fell into a mud pot, an extremely hot natural feature of the park. He was killed in the superheated structure. Tragically, it was impossible to even recover the man’s body.
Yellowstone is expected to outline plans for its phased reopening on Wednesday. Nationally, many states and parks are gradually rolling back their coronavirus restrictions. However, this is coming amidst pushback from medical experts who warn this could lead to an increase in COVID-19 cases.
As of last weekend, all fifty states in the US had rolled back some of their restrictions. More are expected to be rolled back across the country in the weeks to come.
