Yellowstone visitor suffers burns in hot spring trying to rescue dog

A visitor to Yellowstone National Park suffered “significant thermal burns” Monday afternoon after entering a thermal hot spring trying to rescue her dog.

When the unidentified 20-year-old woman and her father got out of their vehicle to look around, their dog jumped out of the car and into Maiden’s Grave Spring near the Firehole River, the national park announced Tuesday.

The woman entered the hot spring to retrieve the dog and suffered burns from her shoulders to her feet. Her father pulled her out of the hot spring and drove her to West Yellowstone, Montana, where park rangers and officials from Hebgen Basin Fire District provided initial care. She was then transported to the Burn Center at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.

The dog was also removed from the thermal hot spring. Its status was unknown, but the father said he intended to take it to a veterinarian.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Bison with calf doesn’t take kindly to woman getting too close

The park is investigating the incident, which is another example of why visitors to Yellowstone must exercise extreme caution around thermal features. The ground in hydrothermal areas is fragile and thin, and scalding water is just below the surface.

The park took this opportunity to remind visitors to protect their pets by controlling them at all times, keeping them in a car, crate or on a leash no more than 6-feet long.

From Yellowstone National Park:

This is the second significant injury in a thermal area in 2021. The first occurred in September at Old Faithful. In 2020, a three-year-old suffered second degree-thermal burns to the lower body and back and a visitor (who illegally entered the park) fell into a thermal feature at Old Faithful while backing up and taking photos. In September 2019, a man suffered severe burns after falling into thermal water near the cone of Old Faithful Geyser. In June 2017, a man sustained severe burns after falling in a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin. In June 2016, a man left the boardwalk and died after slipping into a hot spring in Norris Geyser Basin. In August 2000, one person died and two people received severe burns from falling into a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin.

The Maiden’s Grave Spring is “a gently boiling pool surrounded by a log rail fence,” according to The Geysers of Yellowstone by T. Scott Bryan, as reported by National Parks Traveler. It lies near the west side of the Firehole River and is located in the vicinity of Fountain Flat Drive south of Madison Junction.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Alligator steals little boy’s catch and fishing rod (video)

Photo of Maiden’s Grave Spring courtesy of Yi Ding.