Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have a question and I am not trying to be a non conformist or dismissive because I agree with all above comments. Why with the degree of danger involved would it be so easy to get to that spot? Never having been there, perhaps the answer is that it is not feasible to put a barrier up, but we all know how stupid some people can be and how litigious they can be, so why not something to prevent the idiots from venturing too close. TIA for your answer.
The problem, I think, would be that, even if they put up some fencing, some idiots would still try to get in. Plus, this should remain natural beauty.
I say let the idiots peer into the hole and if it erupts...……...oh, well !
There will always be idiotic people like this. There was a video a while back of a girl getting tossed into the air by a bison people surrounded to take photos. Some people have no common sense and will get angry if you call them on it.
After we fence off all of the mud pots and geysers at Yellowstone we can then turn our attention to roping off the Grand Canyon where people fall off the cliffs. After that, we can put up guard rails at Pikes Peak. This could go on forever because you will never run out of idiots.
I recall reading some time ago that someone fell into a thermal pool at the park and the person just dissolved due to the extreme heat. Nothing left.
I remember that, and if memory serves, he was wearing flip flops when he walked out toward the pool (not that any other type of footwear would have saved him).
"just dissolved due to the extreme heat" is what I contested. But admittedly, heat may have been a catalyst in accelerating the dissolution. At that elevation, water boils at less than 212, so any liquid water would be even cooler..
I think the temperature of the hottest springs is 200 F, but the ph of some of them is below 2 - even as low as 1.2, which is comparable to battery acid.
Quote:
The first thing that would happen is that your body would register that your skin is bathing in waters around 93°C (199°F). It would hurt like nothing you can possibly imagine, but only for as long as your nervous system could register pain, which (fortunately?) won't be more than a minute or so.
At this temperature, your skin (epidermis) would quickly break down and begin to disintegrate. Your blood vessels within your underlying dermis would rupture soon afterwards, causing a rapid blood loss. Some underlying skin layers, instead of breaking down, will lose all their water and become leathery and blackened. Oh, and your underlying subcutaneous fat would soon bubble off too.
With such high acidity levels and at such high temperatures, even your skeleton doesn’t stand a chance. Within just a few hours, an entire human body in one of these hot springs will have completely dissolved into nothing.
There's always faint hope that people will use their brains and not wander into danger if they are educated in advance, but signs just don't work for the arrogant.
The problem, I think, would be that, even if they put up some fencing, some idiots would still try to get in. Plus, this should remain natural beauty.
I agree there should be no fence around Old Faithful. It wouldn't really be workable, anyway. The cone of Old Faithful (more like a shield, really) is hundreds of feet in diameter.
That said... natural beauty? Not at Old Faithful. It's practically a city of hotels, vast parking lots, and shops selling worthless trinkets. It's probably the single most disappointing place in the park because of all that.
However, there are a lot of thermal areas with boardwalks and trails - such Midway Gersey Basin, were one of the attractions is Grand Prismatic Spring. There are occasional railings and ropes, but those are for safety and the deter people from dangerous areas, not to actually prevent access. And there are many backcountry thermal features - geysers, hot springs, etc. - that are completely undeveloped. Most people will never see them because most people refuse to waddle more than a few feet from their cars.
I agree there should be no fence around Old Faithful. It wouldn't really be workable, anyway. The cone of Old Faithful (more like a shield, really) is hundreds of feet in diameter.
That said... natural beauty? Not at Old Faithful. It's practically a city of hotels, vast parking lots, and shops selling worthless trinkets. It's probably the single most disappointing place in the park because of all that.
However, there are a lot of thermal areas with boardwalks and trails - such Midway Gersey Basin, were one of the attractions is Grand Prismatic Spring. There are occasional railings and ropes, but those are for safety and the deter people from dangerous areas, not to actually prevent access. And there are many backcountry thermal features - geysers, hot springs, etc. - that are completely undeveloped. Most people will never see them because most people refuse to waddle more than a few feet from their cars.
We spent time away from the Old Faithful Basin because—parking madness. But we enjoyed walking in other areas. We also enjoyed a couple of ranger talks. Most disappointing to me was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone because of so many tour buses. Foreign tourists seemed to need individual pics of themselves in front of every possible viewpoint. But we had fewer problems around the stinky thermal areas. But I loved the Old Faithful Lodge, and enjoyed watching Old Faithful erupt. But wow, that entire area was packed.
We spent time away from the Old Faithful Basin because—parking madness. But we enjoyed walking in other areas. We also enjoyed a couple of ranger talks. Most disappointing to me was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone because of so many tour buses. Foreign tourists seemed to need individual pics of themselves in front of every possible viewpoint. But we had fewer problems around the stinky thermal areas. But I loved the Old Faithful Lodge, and enjoyed watching Old Faithful erupt. But wow, that entire area was packed.
The great thing about Yellowstone - and almost all national parks - is that solitude and wilderness exist in abundance.
Among our other adventures in Yellowstone, my son and I went on an eight-mile point-to-point backcountry hike (the Rescue Creek Trail, for those interested), mostly downhill, following a trail that saw so little use it faded away until it could barely be discerned for parts of the route (we had a USGS topo map). We saw only one other party (and a number of bison and two young brown bears) on that trail that day. It was glorious.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
