A man has died after falling into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park in the US state of Wyoming.
Colin Nathaniel Scott, 23, of Portland, Oregon, was with his sister and had walked more than 200 yards away from the designated boardwalk when he slipped and fell into the acidic hot spring in the Norris Geyser Basin, park officials said.
His sister reported his fall and rangers tried to navigate the highly-fragile crust of the geyser basin to recover his body, but they have now suspended efforts “due to the extreme nature and futility of it all”.
A spokeswoman from the park said: “They were able to recover a few personal effects. There were no remains left to recover.”
Mr Scott’s death occurred in one of the hottest and most volatile areas of the park.
It comes after a number of incidents in which tourists have left the designated path.
“It’s sort of dumb, if I could be so blunt, to walk off the boardwalks not knowing what you’re doing,” said Professor Kenneth Sims, a member of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
“They’re scofflaws [a person who flouts a law] essentially, who look around and then head off the boardwalk,” he said, adding he was talking generally, not specifically, about Mr Scott’s situation.
Mr Scott himself was described as “a very nice young man, a bright spirit” by a former manager.
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Ranger at Yellowstone are still start for on for a man who fell into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park.
The man, described as being in his early 20s, walked off the boardwalk and into the hot spring in the Norris Geyser Basin on Tuesday afternoon, according to witnesses.
Officials didn’t say whether the man was a tourist.
“At this time, rangers are treating this incident as a probable fatality because the victim has not been located,” Jody Lyle, a spokeswoman for the park, said several hours later.
Authorities closed the basin and were proceeding with caution because of the heat around the springs.
The park website describes the site as the hottest thermal area in Yellowstone.
Just last weekend. a 13-year-old boy burned his ankle and foot when he fell into a hot pool in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin. His father slipped while carrying him, the Billings Gazette reported.
sone the 18900’s there have been 22 deaths in Yellowstone from therma water.
