Tourist dies after falling into Yellowstone hot spring
Digital Reporter
Thursday, June 9, 2016, 10:01 AM - A tourist is dead after travelling about 200 metres off a designated boardwalk and falling into a piping hot, acidic spring in the Noris Basin Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.
Authorities attempted to retrieve the body of Colin Nathaniel Scott, a former nature preserve volunteer from Portland, Oregon, but suspended efforts after rangers determined there were no remains left. The site is the hottest and most unsettled area in Yellowstone, according to the park's website. Water temperatures in the spring can reach as high as 200oC. The park website describes the site as the hottest thermal area in Yellowstone, where superheated water of geysers can reach the boiling point while circulating deep in the Earth and as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit, or 205 degrees Celsius. Officials say this tragic ending is another grim reminder that visitors need to follow park rules.
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"This tragic event must remind all of us to follow the regulations and stay on boardwalks," Yellowstone superintendent Dan Wenk told Global News.
The recent death follows a string of events about bad tourist behaviour including, wandering too close to wildlife or thermal features and hiking in restricted areas. This past Saturday, a 13-year-old boy suffered burns after his father who was carrying him, slipped into another hot spring in Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin.
At least 22 people are known to have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around Yellowstone since 1890, park officials said.
In May, a Canadian tourist was fined for putting a baby bison in the back of his car and taking it to a park ranger at Yellowstone, fearing the animal was cold.
Not long after a group of men from Vancouver, B.C. landed themselves in hot water when they ventured off a boardwalk and onto the park's grand prismatic spring to snap photos for social media.
Since 1890, over 20 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around Yellowstone, according to park officials. Most of the deaths have been accidental, however, at least two people were killed while trying to swim in a hot spring.
SOURCE: Global News
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