Yellowstone Teen Burned by Hot Spring

Oh boy.

Here we go again.

A Yellowstone National Park press release stated that another individual was injured in the park.

It wasn't a bison - It was the hot, hot, HOT thermal waters.

On Monday morning, July 28, a 17-year-old male suffered significant thermal burns to his foot and ankle area in the vicinity of Lone Star Geyser near Old Faithful. - Yellowstone National Park Facebook page.

I'm not going to make fun of the kid for injuring himself. I know a lot of you love to point and laugh at the "tourons" in Yellowstone, but there isn't conclusive information on what happened.

All Yellowstone officials know is that he was hiking in a "thermal area when his foot broke through the thin crust and he suffered burns to a lower extremity."

It appears the kid shouldn't have been hiking there, but who knows?

Yellowstone National Park thermal waters are HOT. Credit: James Lee (Unsplash)

Surprisingly, YNP reported that this was the first thermal water injury in 2025 and the first since September 2024.

The Facebook post reminds everyone to stay on boardwalks, avoid touching any thermal features, refrain from bringing pets, and not throw objects into the water. Additionally, be cautious of toxic gases.

How hot are Yellowstone thermal waters?

The U.S. Geological Survey states Yellowstone's thermal areas have a heat flow of "over 100 watts per square meter, about 50 times that of Yellowstone's average and ~2000 times that of average North American terrain."

Hot springs burst out at nearly 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Woof.