Hiker who left trail near Yellowstone’s Old Faithful burned by scalding water

A 60-year-old woman was burned by scalding water while walking off-trail in a thermal area of Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service said.

The woman, from Windsor, New Hampshire, was walking with her husband and her leashed dog near the Mallard Lake Trailhead at Old Faithful on Monday afternoon, when she broke through a thin crust over the scalding water, NPS said in a statement. Yellowstone sits above a giant, active volcano, and rain seeping underground is heated, rising to the surface as hot springs, geysers and other geothermal features.

The woman, who has not been named, suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg and was taken by helicopter to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for treatment. Her husband and dog were uninjured.

The park is investigating the incident, which is the first known thermal injury there this year. The park, which spans 2.2 million acres, has parts in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, hot springs are responsible for more fatalities and injuries at the famous park than wildlife, with at least 22 people killed and hundreds injured since 1872 – more than double the number of deaths from bears and bison combined.

The most recent thermal death occurred in July 2022; the victim, whose foot was found in a hot spring in the south of the park, was later identified as a 70-year-old man from Los Angeles.

Yellowstone contains the greatest concentration of geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and steam vents in the world, according to the USGS. The park instructs visitors to remain on boardwalks and trails, and exercise extreme caution in hydrothermal areas, where the ground is fragile and thin – but some visitors ignore the dangers.