Clueless Yellowstone visitors spark outrage after trampling over park’s famous natural landmark

Two tourists sparked severe backlash when they risked their lives by walking across the Grand Prismatic Spring’s fragile bacterial mats in Yellowstone National Park.

Tanya Saueressig, a visitor from Livingston, Montana, captured the reckless act on video over the weekend.

“I didn’t think it was real for a second… it was shocking,” she told ABC Fox Montana. “I stood there with my mouth wide open, thinking they were going to get hurt or fall through,” she added.

As she watched them from the safety of the boardwalk, the “tourons” — a portmanteau of “tourists” and “morons” used to describe visitors who behave foolishly on vacation — strolled along, taking selfies and spent enough time on the mats for bystanders to start worrying.

They kept walking until they were within 50 feet of the spring’s scalding-hot water. Saueressig said her concerns quickly turned into anger.

“They were totally oblivious to what was right under their feet. You’re causing so much damage with every step you take, and you don’t care,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

The highly sensitive mats, which give the iconic hot spring its vivid colors, take roughly a year to regrow when trampled. A single footprint can crush millions of cells and leave permanent scars on the landscape.

Geothermal waters in the park can reach temperatures up to 180°F. The fragile ledges surrounding these pools can easily give way, plunging a person into boiling conditions.

Walking on the mats is considered “thermal trespassing,” and is punishable by fines, park bans and even jail time.

Despite warning signs clearly instructing visitors to stay on designated paths, this weekend’s incident is not an isolated one.

In July 2025, a man wearing flip-flops walked onto the restricted bacterial mats to collect hats that had blown away. Additionally, a bison boiled to death last year after stumbling into a hot spring within the park.

While the ground may appear solid, it can be dangerously thin with scalding water just beneath the surface. According to safety guidance from Yellowstone, burn injuries from entering or falling into the park’s hot springs have caused more than 20 deaths.

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