A video of what exactly not to do at the hot springs in Yellowstone National Park is again picking up steam, no pun intended.
The clip, which first appeared on the TouronsOfYellowstone Instagram account (@TouronsOfYellowstone) in 2023, recently went viral again after being shared by the Fascinating (@fasc1nate) account on the social media platform X.
A tourist at Yellowstone National Park illegally/stupidly dips her hand into a hot spring.
— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) April 27, 2025
Yellowstone is also an active geothermal area with hot springs emerging at ~92°C (~198°F) (the boiling point of water at Yellowstone's mean altitude) and steam vents reported as high as… pic.twitter.com/vNviCBDhmY
The video begins with a tourist crouching down just inches away from Yellowstone's famous hot springs with a companion in tow. To get there, of course they've illegally strayed far off the boardwalk designed to keep visitors safe from the natural features.
An off-camera voice can be heard in the original video uttering what most of us are thinking of the reckless tourists' behavior: "Stupid." It gets worse.
The tourist isn't content to just hover their hand above the steam and feel its heat, but just has to touch the spring with their hand and shoe. Their reaction, unsurprisingly, is loudly declaring "hot," recoiling, running away, and then confirming "it's very hot" to everyone watching.
When the video first surfaced, the New York Post added context to the footage by noting the incident occurred at Silex Spring at the Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail. As far as the tourists' actions are concerned, they are strictly prohibited.
Yellowstone's rules instruct visitors to always stay on designated trails and boardwalks while noting more than 20 people have died from burns after venturing or falling into hot springs. Last year, a 60-year-old who wandered off-path suffered severe burns after the thin crust below her broke.
Unfortunately, many tourists fail to get the message and risk life and limb to touch water that can reach temperatures nearing 200 degrees. Ideally, these rule-breakers can be reported to the proper authorities.
In this incident, the visitor who captured the video said there were no nearby rangers or service members. Still, the tourist did receive a harsh, if not long-lasting, lesson in why you should follow the rules at Yellowstone.
Commenters on X, seeing the video for the first time, were baffled by the behavior.
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Absolutely 👏 "This is why there are fences and warning signs," a user wrote.
"The edges can be very brittle," another correctly noted. "Darwin at its best."
"This is why I think that to visit Yellowstone, you should be required to attend at least a 6-hour 'how to behave in Yellowstone' class," a frustrated commenter proposed.
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