Two tourists have been filmed waking across the protected thermal area surrounding the largest hot spring in the US, prompting widespread criticism after footage of the act spread online.<\/p>\n
The pair were seen leaving the designated boardwalk and crossing the colourful bacterial mats that surround the Grand Prismatic Spring in Wyoming\u2019s Yellowstone National Park, despite the area being off-limits.<\/p>\n
Montana woman, Tanya Saueressig, was standing on the boardwalk at the time enjoying the natural scenery before she spotted the \u201coblivious\u201d tourists.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople on the boardwalk were being lovely, giving each other space, and being quiet. It was a really nice experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Saueressig said she was mortified to see two people waking close to the hot spring\u2019s scalding-hot water.<\/p>\n \u201cI stopped in my tracks and was like, \u2018Is that people? That can\u2019t be people. Nobody\u2019s that dumb,\u2019\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could tell they were just strolling along, taking their selfies, without a care in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Park rules require visitors to stay on marked boardwalks and trails at all times as water beneath the thin surface crust can reach near-boiling temperatures, making the geothermal areas extremely dangerous if the ground gives way.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just the tourists\u2019 safety Mr Saueressig was worried about, the landmark\u2019s vivid orange, yellow and green hues are created by heat-loving micro-organisms that live on the bacterial mats, which can be permanently damaged by a single footprint.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were totally oblivious to what was right under their feet. You\u2019re causing so much damage with every step you take, and you don\u2019t care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI started getting scared because I thought they were going to fall in and get really, really hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cI worried people at the overlook were going to watch someone die that day. They were out there where nobody could help them.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest incident has reignited frustrations over visitors repeatedly ignoring park regulations.<\/p>\n In July 2025, a man wear thongs was seen trampling over the bacteria mats to collect his hat which had blown off his head.<\/p>\n Last year a bison boiled to death after stumbling into the Grand Prismatic Spring\u2019s scalding water.<\/p>\n Walking on the mats is consider \u201cthermal trespassing\u201d and people found breaching the rule can be issued with a fine, park ban or even jail time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two tourists have been filmed waking across the protected thermal area surrounding the largest hot spring in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-815691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}