YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) – Park rangers navigated a dangerous landscape where boiling water flows beneath a fragile rock crust, searching Wednesday for a man who reportedly walked off a boardwalk and fell into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park.
The man was presumed dead after a witness reported that a man in his early 20s had traveled 225 yards off the pathway Tuesday before falling into one of one of the hottest and most volatile areas in Yellowstone. The witness is considered credible, authorities said.
The circumstances of the man’s fall were not yet known, but it follows several high-profile incidents at the rugged park, where tourists went off designated pathways onto unique landmarks, sometimes leading to injuries, or got too close to wildlife.
The safety of park personnel was a top concern during the search in Norris Geyser Basin, officials said. It is a popular attraction in the nation’s first national park, which received a record 4.1 million visitors last year. Water temperatures there can reach 199 degrees, the boiling point for water at the park’s high elevation.
Posted signs warn visitors to keep to boardwalks and trails in thermal areas, which feature boiling pools, geysers that can blast hundreds of feet into the air and toxic gases.