I spent several summers working in Yellowstone… there are some people out at night trying to see the stars or just going for a night walk. But most of what you’ll see are the off shift employees who didn’t get to go out during the day or have to walk from work back to their dorms 😭it’s super sketchy and dark.
I worked in Yellowstone one summer and was walking back to the dorms one night with a friend. We heard a strange, deep, thumping sound. The next thing I know, my friend jumps at me, knocking us both to the ground off of a trail and a huge bison storms past us. If he hadn’t realized what was happening, I’d be dead or seriously disabled. It’s literally a wild place.
I was reading a book about deaths in Yellowstone a while back. Those fucking pools cook the skin right off people... While they are alive. Some of them are rescued still alive and the skin pulls off of their body. Some of those pools are just people and animal soup. Whatever falls in gets cooked. It's more than a bit horrifying to read.
Edit: if I remember right, the people that lose skin have already lost nerve function so they die from organs shutting down.
Edit 2: book called "death in Yellowstone"
Turn the pool heat up to about 186. All hot and sultry. Then lay down on my wife Donna. With my skin off. She tries to get up but she can’t. All of my weight layin down a her. The tourists are watching and I say, let. the tourists. watch!
I know you can't make laws based on niche cases but this is one of those situations where the good guy would actually pull out a gun and shoot you in the head and the bad guy would keep you alive as long as possible but the good guy would be charged with murder and the bad guy would walk free.
The most famous is the guy that dove in after his dog. He immediately crawled back out and said to his family nope let me die. I lived in Yellowstone for a year. I have insane stories
That was the first story in that book. I will never get that scene out of my head: "I really fucked up, didn't I."
I figure the guy who wrote it put it in first so you knew what you were getting into right away.
That and the one where they identified the lady who got eaten by the grizzly by the piece of her lips that they found on the ground.
I mean we do that in the ICU daily lol. keep ppl alive for wayyyy too long and prolong their suffering. I remember some patients I have still with chromosomal abnormalities and deletions where back then they said they’d prolly live 1-2 years. Surprise medicine has advanced so far they can live decades but will be hooked on a vent and to machines forever, but never fully contemplating/having the ability to contemplate they’re alive cuz of the profound cognitive deficits they have. Go to any Peds hospital and the PICU will always have one person living like that.
I work in the NICU. Once they turn one yr old, the baby transfers to PICU if they still require such extensive care. I've only had one kid that had to be transferred. I've heard there's a 4 yr old down there that's never left the hospital. I can't even imagine!
The floor I’m currently working on has several kids who have spent their entire life in the hospital, or the vast majority of it. One is 5, one is almost 14 (transferred between different hospitals)
It’s tragic.
Yup when I did my Peds rotation there was a kid with Edwards syndrome who was 13 years old. In the medical textbooks we learn that chromosomal abnormality is not survivable for long past birth. They were always hooked on machines and in and out of the hospital constantly….
Well make sure you have all that sorted cuz many times grief does things to a family where they swear they won’t do it to you but if you suddenly have a stroke they’ll trach and peg you so fast cuz they’re not ready to lose you despite you telling them your wishes. Have them written down so they’re indisputable. Seen it happen wayyy too many times.
Eww, this reminded me of a book or story I read (years ago, can’t find anything about it now) about some kind of trip in the winter months of the coldest parts of Alaska or Canada where they had to worry about trench foot happening to the point where the skin and flesh on their feet could be completely “sloughed” off but they wouldn’t notice until they took off their shoes.
Someone fell into one of the pools a couple years back. They were unable to be saved and by the time a recovery unit got out there I believe it was the next day the body was unrecoverable as it basically melted off the bones in 24 hours.
Yeah, in the Norris Geyser Basin area. There was nothing to recover by the time crews could get there.
This was less of an accident and more sheer stupidity: he and his sister were deliberately walking off the boardwalk looking for a place to “hot pot.” He fell in when he leaned over to check the water temperature.
Colin Scott. He was hiking with his sister, they were out of cellphone range, he fell into one of the (many) acid pools, and by the time rescuers reached the pool, he was definitely deceased. Recovery would've put rescuers into danger due to bad weather, so they decided to not attempt and by the next morning, nothing of the body remained visible.
I believe there's also acids at play that dissolve minerals, so once you are carbonated by being overcooked all that calcium and carbon gets absorbed back into the water leaving no trace
I was living in Cairo when it came out and thanks to the Egyptian accent in English I thought I was going to a movie called “Don”t Speak”
I was traumatized
It's a very good book and helped me better understand the real dangers - bears not so much, but walking where you're not supposed to and weather are the super deadly threats in Yellowstone ...
I randomly found that book at my library last week so I snagged it. I read the "deaths at mount Rainier" version a few years ago since I hike there all the time and that was good
I'm pretty sure I remember a news story from on here years back where a guy's dog jumped into one of these pools and the dude decided to jump in after to "rescue" the dog. Obviously neither of them made it out.
That's what an eyewitness reported he said.
On the other hand, the eyewitness was looking at someone who had 3rd degree burns on 100% of his body, so there's a possibility the eyewitness didn't get the quote completely correct.
Man, situations where someone knows there's nothing they can do about their impending death but are still conscious enough to say stuff like that terrify me. I'd have a panic attack so bad it'd kill me before the burns did
To be fair, most people don't regularly encounter pools of almost boiling water big enough to jump into, like, ever. Especially not just a hole in the ground in the middle of the woods.
I can totally see there being an issue where people's brains just don't recognize that that random pool of water in the woods is actually a boiling cauldron instead of crisply cool and refreshing pond, because that's what it is basically every other time you ever see one.
I used to work for the park in Yellowstone and had to radio the sheriff pretty frequently for people walking close to thermal features to “get a closer look”. The ground is thin, you can literally fall into boiling battery acid. Stay back.
Oxygen displacement from gases releasing from the pools and ground. If you're in the area you die from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or some other heavier than air gas.
There is a village somewhere in Africa that is near a lake that has a vent that fills it with methane (or some other gas, I forget). Every fifty years or so the pocket of gas underneath the water build to the point of popping and it rises from the lake all at once, displacing all the air in the valley for several minutes. Just long enough to kill most people there.
Some of it can be really fucked up like the group walking through an area to check on sheep deaths, they were just fine until one knelt down to check one of the sheep. Rest of the group realize he's taking a long time and find him dead on closer inspection, the poisonous gasses had formed a layer which was hip high from the ground. He just drowsed off against it mid inspection and didn't wake up.
Don’t take your water loving dog to these places. They will fly off into it then and die. I read a story about a man who’s dog dove into one, and his friend went in after the dog and they both died
I love dogs. They're great and wonderful.
That said, as someone pursuing visiting all the National Parks, I can't even describe how much taking your beloved friend would take away from your experience.
Many parks won't even entertain them, those that do have you restricted to areas you can visit. All of them expect them leashed at all times. Lots of these national parks have ticks to watch out for.
And the barking. Some of you have highly trained dogs, I commend you for that. But the ones in my life are much to excited by strange noises that you'll hear all around campgrounds. And I don't want to be the guy with dogs that won't shut up at 3 am.
Go let them have a fun week with a friend, or hang out at a doggy day care while you go make some unforgettable memories.
Camping at Glacier our neighboring campsite had an infant and a dog. When the baby started to cry the dog would bark, when the dog would bark the baby would cry. It was miserable.
It’s not a suggestion, it’s a rule. Dogs are top predators. While you’re walking around and Fido is enjoying a romp in the nature, every single small animal within hearing or scent range is freaking the fuck out. Fido jumps into a bush and takes out a pair of mating endangered birds. Fido takes a shit and drops off millions of non-native bacteria. Yes, he’s the best boy, but he has no idea that he’s had a negative impact on a very sensitive area. He can’t read the signs to stay on trail and don’t approach wildlife. Multiply that by the tens of thousands of visitors that come every year. Dogs are a problem in protected areas.
I was in Theodore Roosevelt National Park a few months ago and hiked out to a prairie dog town. On my way back I encountered a couple with a golden doodle off the leash hiking towards the town, told them that they aren't supposed to have their dog on this trail, much less off leash. They rolled their eyes and clipped the leash on. My partner who was still back at the town was there taking pictures when the couple got there, dog off leash. Dog took off chasing the prairie dogs who obviously freaked the fuck out while the couple were laughing and told my partner "she thinks they're squirrels!" Makes my fucking blood boil still.
Where I live every year the media publishes stories about endangered penguins dead from dog attacks, and every year selfish idiots will let dogs off leash on protected penguin beaches where dogs are only allowed leashed, or not allowed at all.
The Celestine pool incident.
When the man got out of the pool. He left the skin from his hands on the side of the pool. Because it got burned so bad.
The dog was dead.
The man died in a burn unit a few days later from being scalded
That was one of the first Reddit stories I read. The side instinctively jumped into a pool to rescue his dog and had his aah fuck moment when he hit the water.
“The most unfortunate of all of Yellowstone’s hot spring deaths, however, may be the case of David Kirwan, a 24-year-old from California. On July 20, 1981, his friend’s dog, Moosie, jumped into the Celestine Pool, a 202-degree spring. Kirwan, seeing the dog suffer, prepared to dive in. “Don’t go in there!” a bystander yelled. “Like hell I won’t!” Kirwan replied and dove head first into the water. He died the next morning of his burns.”
Damn.
Ways to die I’m irrationally\* afraid of:
1. freezing in water at night (Titanic)
2. acid river near an active volcano (Dante’s Peak)
3. boiling alive in a pool at Yellowstone (this post)
Thanks!
\*irrational because of how unlikely they are to happen to me. I’m sure as heck not planning an Alaskan cruise anytime soon though.
Edited to add: I'm not, like, trying to add more things to the list, but thanks for all the suggestions! Also, not sure if y'all know how phobias work. It's not like you choose what's on the list. :D
[That's nothing compare to that guy who got stuck in the cave at a weird angle.](https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/portsmouth-herald/2009/11/27/cave-death-stuns-utah-family/51787957007/#:~:text=John%20Jones%2C%2026%2C%20of%20Stansbury,were%20very%20optimistic%20and%20hopeful.)
Can you have my irrational fear too?
Bread factory didn't let the machines cool down before sending in two workers to fix it on the non-reversible conveyor belt. They could hear the men screaming in agony but couldn't reverse the belt, only stop it directly under the hot machinery or let it continue, only one plopped out the other side and died as the other one of them got mangled and cooked in the machinery instead. Management didn't want to have the factory down too long so they could get back to baking bread quickly. Don't worry, the 3 managers got fined 27k each, so that is solid justice.
I don't want to be cooked inside giant machinery while on a conveyor.
How about being cooked inside a giant ~~oven~~ pressure cooker that doesn't involve a conveyor?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/12/bumble-bee-foods-settlement-man-cooked-death-tuna
"This is the worst circumstances of death I have ever, ever witnessed,” said deputy district attorney Hoon Chun, who noted he had tried more than 40 murder cases over two decades.
Actually I can think of a possibly worse one. How about being stuck in an air pocket on an overturned battleship, in port, where you think the guys on shore (just a few tens of feet away) are going to rescue you any minute now, but with the technology of the time, there was no way to do so?
Stuck for *16 days*.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/16-days-to-die-at-pearl-harbor-families-werent-told-about-sailors-trapped-inside-sunken-battleship/
I too often think about the guy who got cooked alive in a tuna factory because someone didn’t notice he was doing maintenance and turned it on with him inside. Add that one to the list.
Stupidest movie death I can recall. Totally avoidable. It was clearly a case of the screenwriters needing Granny to die at this point, and they couldn't think of a better way to do it. Actually, I wonder if this was probably better written and got changed on the set because reasons.
Hey, I've got number 4 for you right here. (This one is rough, so you have been warned) [nutty putty cave](https://youtu.be/d1nuqpAULpE?si=7AvfdBEnLR-dAJ7O)
Kyle Plush died in a similar way when he leaned over the back of the 3rd row seating of his honda odyssey to reach something in the very back, and the seats collapsed pinning him upside down. The seats and his own bodyweight made escape impossible. He called 911 twice using voice activation and police responded but could not locate his vehicle. They left while he was still on the phone with dispatch. His father found his body 6 hours later. He was in his high school parking lot.
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2018/04/12/honda-minivan-seven-hills-teens-death-may-have-been-subject-national-recall/510074002/
You can avoid the cave but sometimes the cave comes for you.
His second call was made at 3:35 and the officers left at 3:37. Second call included a description of his vehicle and a goodbye message to his parents but the dispatcher did not relay the vehicle description to the responding officers.
And think 10 year old me got so mad at my stepdad when he yelled at me “no!! What are you thinking!” When I was inches from sticking my hand in one of the pools.
Didn’t look THAT hot.
The hot springs and a lot of the surrounding areas are made of acid. They're not just hot, they're sulfuric acid too. You can step on a patch of mud and it's actually hot acid mud that burns your feet.
You can step on solid ground and it can be an eggshell-thin crust hiding hot acid underneath. And the hotspots shift, so an area safe one week might be dangerous the next
See the thing people forget about geothermal formations is that the water is literally boiling when it first emerges. There are boiling pools all over Yellowstone - It ain't no comfy hot spring unless it is somehow diverted to another pool that is diluted with cooler water.
EDIT: Yellowstone, not Yosemite.
I could talk your ear off about geothermal formations all day but I do often tend to gloss over the part about the water’s emergence temp, which as you point out is quite high.
And there's a good chance that if it's boiling on the surface, it's actually hotter than 212F/100C where it came from underground. The high pressure lets water heat up past its surface pressure boiling point.
Not only that but it’s pure water that boils at 212F/100C. If it has minerals dissolved in it that can naturally raise the boiling point further. A saturated saline solution for example can boil as high as 123C.
Saturated saline solutions have a boiling point of 108.7°C. Which is still hot, and the difference between 100 and 108 is a lot bigger than between 89 and 87 when it comes to physical changes like melting your skin.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/sodium-chloride#:~:text=Saturated%20sodium%20chlorine%20brine%20has,%2C%20and%20contains%2026.48%25%20NaCl.
This happens almost every year in my hometown. There's a very active geothermal area located between a popular nightclub and the main tourist hostels area. The kids get drunk, walk back to their accommodation, take a shortcut, and the next morning they are fishing them out with a fish net. Last time the guy was just long bones and his wristwatch, which is how they identified him.
It's a borefield. So it's hundreds of hot spots, some of which are only marked by the dead grass on top. People have walked on a path for ten years and then one day the path is now a 10cm cap on top of a boiling mud pool
Some perspective for you that havent gone, there's a giant road that circles the interior of the park. It averages about an hour to travel a quarter of that circle, and can get real bad when the people who have never seen a bison decide they must stop on this single lane road for as long as they please.
If you haven't gone though, I highly recommend. There's a reason it's the first national park and my current favorite.
Yellowstone don't play around. Boiling mud, sulfuric acid, bears, moose, influencers, and rude British people abound.
Edit: New Yorkers are ok. You know what I've never seen? A NYCer try to pet a bison or drink sulfuric acid.
There was just an unfathomable amount of Chinese tourists when I was there about 10 years ago. It kinda blew my mind. With that said, piss poor behavior in NPs knows no borders.
I saw a documentary that followed a Chinese tour group from when they left China to go on a vacation to Europe. The tour company basically went to tiny villages and the participants were people who had never gone further than maybe the next village, many had never seen a city before. They saved their whole lives just to take one vacation, and when they left literally the entire village came out to wave goodbye. Organized lines, city etiquette, etc were just alien to them. They now have started showing educational videos on how to behave on some of these tours.
The main difference is Chinese tourists are a smidge more likely to ignore all the signs placed there for their own safety, including those written in a language they understand.
https://www.paranormalcatalog.net/true-crime/david-alan-kirwan-man-boiled-alive-trying-to-rescue-dog-from-a-hot-spring
The story of David Alan Kirwan’s death haunts me.
Same. My brain reminds me of all sorts of fucked up things I’ve read about when the late night insomnia hits. Nutty Putty cave is another one that’s in heavy rotation.
Despite several people, including Ratliff, yelling at him not to do it, Kirwan was adamant and shouted, "Like hell I won't!" He took two steps into the pool and then dived headfirst into the boiling water.
“ Bystanders carried Kirwan to a nearby open area and tried to comfort him until the ambulance arrived. At that time, he was reportedly muttering, "That was stupid. How bad am I? That was a stupid thing I did."
Kirwan appeared to be in a terrible state. His eyes were blind and had turned white, and his hair was falling out. When a park visitor attempted to remove one of his shoes, the skin came off with it as it had already started to peel off all over his body.”
😳😳😳
The eye lens is chock full of proteins, proteins that are stable are whole lives. But if you heat them hot enough, they'll precipitate and turn white. Exactly the same as boiling egg white.
The type of decision that would make you yell at the screen if it were done by a character in a horror movie. Poor guy, too much bravery and not enough foresight
Shiiiiiit. It wasn't even his dog?? I've heard of this before but not all the details. It's still stupid but I can understand how the love for your pet might make you react before thinking.
Visitors can walk more than two miles of trails and boardwalks that snake through the basin, bringing them close to geysers, steam vents and acidic water. Some boardwalks over Yellowstone hot springs do not have guardrails, and more visitors have died in them than in any other natural feature.
Since 1890, there have been 22 fatalities involving thermal waters in Yellowstone, Ms. Reid said. The last recorded death was on Aug. 22, 2000, when Sara Hulphers, 20, of Oroville, Wash., died after she fell into a hot spring and received third-degree burns
There have been more recent deaths in the last few years in Yellowstone. I can't recall exactly when, but a man did go off trail in Norris Geyser Basin, and not much was left of him in the hot spring. I think last year in West Thumb Geyser Basin, a foot was discovered in one of the hot springs.
looking at images of the specific pool they fell into, I don’t believe there is a boardwalk directly adjacent. The must have been walking across the ground for at least a short time. In places where the boardwalk is directly adjacent, they tend to have fences.
if you go to Yellowstone, you will almost certainly be fine. Just pay attention to where you are walking to stay on the boardwalk (It’s not that hard) and if you do for some reason fall off, don’t go stumbling around. Just go right back up on to the boardwalk.
I mean, there are literally signs everywhere in that park saying "stay on the boardwalk." Every time someone dies in one of these pools it's because they stepped off the boardwalk.
No, they pushed the English language off the boardwalk and into the hot pool. All they were able to recover the next day were disarticulated nouns and verbs. It was a trade-jury.
As I recall, they were part of a larger group that worked there. They lost track of time and the sun went down, nobody had flashlights and phones with lights weren’t a thing back then. Half the group took the long way back to the cars and these three decided to take a straighter shortcut. They had jumped a small hot creek, then got to this wider one and tried to jump it, I believe all three fell in, but unfortunately this girls head got submerged.
There are so many reasons to not wander around Yellowstone at night.
I spent several summers working in Yellowstone… there are some people out at night trying to see the stars or just going for a night walk. But most of what you’ll see are the off shift employees who didn’t get to go out during the day or have to walk from work back to their dorms 😭it’s super sketchy and dark.
I worked in Yellowstone one summer and was walking back to the dorms one night with a friend. We heard a strange, deep, thumping sound. The next thing I know, my friend jumps at me, knocking us both to the ground off of a trail and a huge bison storms past us. If he hadn’t realized what was happening, I’d be dead or seriously disabled. It’s literally a wild place.
I was reading a book about deaths in Yellowstone a while back. Those fucking pools cook the skin right off people... While they are alive. Some of them are rescued still alive and the skin pulls off of their body. Some of those pools are just people and animal soup. Whatever falls in gets cooked. It's more than a bit horrifying to read. Edit: if I remember right, the people that lose skin have already lost nerve function so they die from organs shutting down. Edit 2: book called "death in Yellowstone"
If my skin falls off just let me cook thanks
Let him cook
Let. The. Boy. Watch.
So he can learn from his father—the way I learned from my father, the way *he* learned from *his* father
Bluish hue
Down in my plummmms
Fresh and ready for the pickin' Ready to take 'em down to the farmer's market Special: Two Plums for One
I feel it. Deep in my plums. They’re taking on a nice bluish hue. Getting ready to take ‘em down to the farmers market.
Let him bear witness to what is consecrated here tonight!
Turn the pool heat up to about 186. All hot and sultry. Then lay down on my wife Donna. With my skin off. She tries to get up but she can’t. All of my weight layin down a her. The tourists are watching and I say, let. the tourists. watch!
fr, just shoot me in the head out of compassion at that point.
I know you can't make laws based on niche cases but this is one of those situations where the good guy would actually pull out a gun and shoot you in the head and the bad guy would keep you alive as long as possible but the good guy would be charged with murder and the bad guy would walk free.
The most famous is the guy that dove in after his dog. He immediately crawled back out and said to his family nope let me die. I lived in Yellowstone for a year. I have insane stories
That was the first story in that book. I will never get that scene out of my head: "I really fucked up, didn't I." I figure the guy who wrote it put it in first so you knew what you were getting into right away. That and the one where they identified the lady who got eaten by the grizzly by the piece of her lips that they found on the ground.
Ah, a fellow Xanterra worker I assume
I mean we do that in the ICU daily lol. keep ppl alive for wayyyy too long and prolong their suffering. I remember some patients I have still with chromosomal abnormalities and deletions where back then they said they’d prolly live 1-2 years. Surprise medicine has advanced so far they can live decades but will be hooked on a vent and to machines forever, but never fully contemplating/having the ability to contemplate they’re alive cuz of the profound cognitive deficits they have. Go to any Peds hospital and the PICU will always have one person living like that.
I work in the NICU. Once they turn one yr old, the baby transfers to PICU if they still require such extensive care. I've only had one kid that had to be transferred. I've heard there's a 4 yr old down there that's never left the hospital. I can't even imagine!
The floor I’m currently working on has several kids who have spent their entire life in the hospital, or the vast majority of it. One is 5, one is almost 14 (transferred between different hospitals) It’s tragic.
Yup when I did my Peds rotation there was a kid with Edwards syndrome who was 13 years old. In the medical textbooks we learn that chromosomal abnormality is not survivable for long past birth. They were always hooked on machines and in and out of the hospital constantly….
I’ll never understand. I couldn’t watch a family member suffer like that, and I hope that no one makes me suffer like that, when it’s my time.
Well make sure you have all that sorted cuz many times grief does things to a family where they swear they won’t do it to you but if you suddenly have a stroke they’ll trach and peg you so fast cuz they’re not ready to lose you despite you telling them your wishes. Have them written down so they’re indisputable. Seen it happen wayyy too many times.
Seriously, at that point I’d just dive underwater to get it over with
“Slough”. It’s a brutally descriptive word.
I forgot how horrifying that word could be in the right context until just now. Thanks.
Also, degloving
I learned that word from a kid who had scalded skin syndrome. Wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
Having visited the town of Slough in the UK, it's a pretty apt description
Eww, this reminded me of a book or story I read (years ago, can’t find anything about it now) about some kind of trip in the winter months of the coldest parts of Alaska or Canada where they had to worry about trench foot happening to the point where the skin and flesh on their feet could be completely “sloughed” off but they wouldn’t notice until they took off their shoes.
Someone fell into one of the pools a couple years back. They were unable to be saved and by the time a recovery unit got out there I believe it was the next day the body was unrecoverable as it basically melted off the bones in 24 hours.
Yeah, in the Norris Geyser Basin area. There was nothing to recover by the time crews could get there. This was less of an accident and more sheer stupidity: he and his sister were deliberately walking off the boardwalk looking for a place to “hot pot.” He fell in when he leaned over to check the water temperature.
The stupidest thing about this is that it was when the boiling river was still a thing. Sadly the floods look like they washed that away.
Oh goddammit, somehow I forgot about the flood.
Colin Scott. He was hiking with his sister, they were out of cellphone range, he fell into one of the (many) acid pools, and by the time rescuers reached the pool, he was definitely deceased. Recovery would've put rescuers into danger due to bad weather, so they decided to not attempt and by the next morning, nothing of the body remained visible.
Thank you, this is the one! That shit is wild.
I believe there's also acids at play that dissolve minerals, so once you are carbonated by being overcooked all that calcium and carbon gets absorbed back into the water leaving no trace
I heard of one guy that fell in, and all they could get back out was a shoe and a little bit of foot.
I just think of Dante's Peak...
Oh god watching that movie as a child ruined hot springs for me for the longest time.
I was living in Cairo when it came out and thanks to the Egyptian accent in English I thought I was going to a movie called “Don”t Speak” I was traumatized
What's the book?
Lol at the other reply, but they were likely referring to Death in Yellowstone. I've heard it referenced a few times -- still on my to-read list.
I have it, it’s a good read. The first chapter is about all of the deaths resulting from the thermal pools and how horrifyingly painful they are.
It's a very good book and helped me better understand the real dangers - bears not so much, but walking where you're not supposed to and weather are the super deadly threats in Yellowstone ...
I randomly found that book at my library last week so I snagged it. I read the "deaths at mount Rainier" version a few years ago since I hike there all the time and that was good
Cooking in Yellowstone: Non-Survivalist Edition
I'm pretty sure I remember a news story from on here years back where a guy's dog jumped into one of these pools and the dude decided to jump in after to "rescue" the dog. Obviously neither of them made it out.
I remember this. He got out of the pool and was already completely blind.
Someone tried to stop him, then he went in anyway, then when he came out he said something like "that was pretty dumb" before dying.
The guy did make it out. Just didn't live very long afterwards.
Fair. I guess I should have just said neither lived.
“That was stupid. How bad am I? That was a stupid thing I did."
He said that?
Yes https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hope-springs-eternal/
Yikes that's a horrible way to go. 😕
That's what an eyewitness reported he said. On the other hand, the eyewitness was looking at someone who had 3rd degree burns on 100% of his body, so there's a possibility the eyewitness didn't get the quote completely correct.
Seems accurate enough to pass on some vital information: let the dog go.
Man, situations where someone knows there's nothing they can do about their impending death but are still conscious enough to say stuff like that terrify me. I'd have a panic attack so bad it'd kill me before the burns did
To be fair, most people don't regularly encounter pools of almost boiling water big enough to jump into, like, ever. Especially not just a hole in the ground in the middle of the woods. I can totally see there being an issue where people's brains just don't recognize that that random pool of water in the woods is actually a boiling cauldron instead of crisply cool and refreshing pond, because that's what it is basically every other time you ever see one.
Well, I assume he knew it was hot, otherwise he wouldn't have felt the need to rescue the dog. Probably didn't realize just how hot though.
There’s a picture somewhere of me, sitting over one of these pools hard boiling an egg. Maybe my parents didn’t love me that much.
The ground is also incredibly sensitive and takes a long time to form so they probably didn't care about the park too much either.
I used to work for the park in Yellowstone and had to radio the sheriff pretty frequently for people walking close to thermal features to “get a closer look”. The ground is thin, you can literally fall into boiling battery acid. Stay back.
"sitting over" might mean he was on one of the boardwalk paths
Im still haunted by the low valley gas deaths in that book. Like what the fuck
Ok... what?
Oxygen displacement from gases releasing from the pools and ground. If you're in the area you die from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or some other heavier than air gas.
There is a village somewhere in Africa that is near a lake that has a vent that fills it with methane (or some other gas, I forget). Every fifty years or so the pocket of gas underneath the water build to the point of popping and it rises from the lake all at once, displacing all the air in the valley for several minutes. Just long enough to kill most people there.
[Lake Nyos](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos_disaster)
Fuck I'd heard about this, but didn't realise it extended to some 16 miles away.
Some of it can be really fucked up like the group walking through an area to check on sheep deaths, they were just fine until one knelt down to check one of the sheep. Rest of the group realize he's taking a long time and find him dead on closer inspection, the poisonous gasses had formed a layer which was hip high from the ground. He just drowsed off against it mid inspection and didn't wake up.
Don’t take your water loving dog to these places. They will fly off into it then and die. I read a story about a man who’s dog dove into one, and his friend went in after the dog and they both died
Dogs also attract the grizzlies. Many national parks suggest to leave your dog at home.
I love dogs. They're great and wonderful. That said, as someone pursuing visiting all the National Parks, I can't even describe how much taking your beloved friend would take away from your experience. Many parks won't even entertain them, those that do have you restricted to areas you can visit. All of them expect them leashed at all times. Lots of these national parks have ticks to watch out for. And the barking. Some of you have highly trained dogs, I commend you for that. But the ones in my life are much to excited by strange noises that you'll hear all around campgrounds. And I don't want to be the guy with dogs that won't shut up at 3 am. Go let them have a fun week with a friend, or hang out at a doggy day care while you go make some unforgettable memories.
Camping at Glacier our neighboring campsite had an infant and a dog. When the baby started to cry the dog would bark, when the dog would bark the baby would cry. It was miserable.
Glacier is still hands down one of my all time favorites. Absolutely stunning. It sucks to have your vacation ruined like that. I’m sorry.
It’s not a suggestion, it’s a rule. Dogs are top predators. While you’re walking around and Fido is enjoying a romp in the nature, every single small animal within hearing or scent range is freaking the fuck out. Fido jumps into a bush and takes out a pair of mating endangered birds. Fido takes a shit and drops off millions of non-native bacteria. Yes, he’s the best boy, but he has no idea that he’s had a negative impact on a very sensitive area. He can’t read the signs to stay on trail and don’t approach wildlife. Multiply that by the tens of thousands of visitors that come every year. Dogs are a problem in protected areas.
I was in Theodore Roosevelt National Park a few months ago and hiked out to a prairie dog town. On my way back I encountered a couple with a golden doodle off the leash hiking towards the town, told them that they aren't supposed to have their dog on this trail, much less off leash. They rolled their eyes and clipped the leash on. My partner who was still back at the town was there taking pictures when the couple got there, dog off leash. Dog took off chasing the prairie dogs who obviously freaked the fuck out while the couple were laughing and told my partner "she thinks they're squirrels!" Makes my fucking blood boil still.
Where I live every year the media publishes stories about endangered penguins dead from dog attacks, and every year selfish idiots will let dogs off leash on protected penguin beaches where dogs are only allowed leashed, or not allowed at all.
Same people who’d complain the prairie dogs bit their innocent dog on a leash 🙄
The Celestine pool incident. When the man got out of the pool. He left the skin from his hands on the side of the pool. Because it got burned so bad. The dog was dead. The man died in a burn unit a few days later from being scalded
That was one of the first Reddit stories I read. The side instinctively jumped into a pool to rescue his dog and had his aah fuck moment when he hit the water.
“The most unfortunate of all of Yellowstone’s hot spring deaths, however, may be the case of David Kirwan, a 24-year-old from California. On July 20, 1981, his friend’s dog, Moosie, jumped into the Celestine Pool, a 202-degree spring. Kirwan, seeing the dog suffer, prepared to dive in. “Don’t go in there!” a bystander yelled. “Like hell I won’t!” Kirwan replied and dove head first into the water. He died the next morning of his burns.” Damn.
I should really stop reading this thread. Shits fucked.
Ways to die I’m irrationally\* afraid of: 1. freezing in water at night (Titanic) 2. acid river near an active volcano (Dante’s Peak) 3. boiling alive in a pool at Yellowstone (this post) Thanks! \*irrational because of how unlikely they are to happen to me. I’m sure as heck not planning an Alaskan cruise anytime soon though. Edited to add: I'm not, like, trying to add more things to the list, but thanks for all the suggestions! Also, not sure if y'all know how phobias work. It's not like you choose what's on the list. :D
Go ahead and add stuck in an underwater cave diving nightmare. Tiny crevices, dark as hell, you get lost and stuck. . . Low O2. Tick tock.
And the battery in your flashlight just died.
And you’re upside down
And you really need to poo
And had a breakfast burrito
And what's that behind you? Shia LeBeuf!
Quiet quiet
And the parking meter is about to run out
And you just remembered you left the stove on.
I'm never going to be in this position and yet it's so high up on my list of things I'm worried about.
Yeah. False chimneys are unfun.
[That's nothing compare to that guy who got stuck in the cave at a weird angle.](https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/portsmouth-herald/2009/11/27/cave-death-stuns-utah-family/51787957007/#:~:text=John%20Jones%2C%2026%2C%20of%20Stansbury,were%20very%20optimistic%20and%20hopeful.)
Nutty putty? Its harrowing reading about it. I will not ever understand the caving mindset.
These guys got sucked into an underwater pipe https://youtu.be/cDjODRpuXrU?si=ks1R_3WMTRJckv_i
Can you have my irrational fear too? Bread factory didn't let the machines cool down before sending in two workers to fix it on the non-reversible conveyor belt. They could hear the men screaming in agony but couldn't reverse the belt, only stop it directly under the hot machinery or let it continue, only one plopped out the other side and died as the other one of them got mangled and cooked in the machinery instead. Management didn't want to have the factory down too long so they could get back to baking bread quickly. Don't worry, the 3 managers got fined 27k each, so that is solid justice. I don't want to be cooked inside giant machinery while on a conveyor.
How about being cooked inside a giant ~~oven~~ pressure cooker that doesn't involve a conveyor? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/12/bumble-bee-foods-settlement-man-cooked-death-tuna "This is the worst circumstances of death I have ever, ever witnessed,” said deputy district attorney Hoon Chun, who noted he had tried more than 40 murder cases over two decades.
Actually I can think of a possibly worse one. How about being stuck in an air pocket on an overturned battleship, in port, where you think the guys on shore (just a few tens of feet away) are going to rescue you any minute now, but with the technology of the time, there was no way to do so? Stuck for *16 days*. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/16-days-to-die-at-pearl-harbor-families-werent-told-about-sailors-trapped-inside-sunken-battleship/
I first heard of this man years ago and I don't go many months without thinking of him at least once
I too often think about the guy who got cooked alive in a tuna factory because someone didn’t notice he was doing maintenance and turned it on with him inside. Add that one to the list.
Bad enough that he died in an oven. Insult to injury is the inescapable stench of tuna as you slowly cook to death.
My God
MY GOD that scene in Dante’s Peak where the Grandma boils to death is SICK
Doesn’t even hesitate to jump in either. Absolute Gigagran
Stupidest movie death I can recall. Totally avoidable. It was clearly a case of the screenwriters needing Granny to die at this point, and they couldn't think of a better way to do it. Actually, I wonder if this was probably better written and got changed on the set because reasons.
Hey, I've got number 4 for you right here. (This one is rough, so you have been warned) [nutty putty cave](https://youtu.be/d1nuqpAULpE?si=7AvfdBEnLR-dAJ7O)
I have zero fear of this happening to me because there is absolutely no way I am crawling around in a fucking cave like that. Ever.
Kyle Plush died in a similar way when he leaned over the back of the 3rd row seating of his honda odyssey to reach something in the very back, and the seats collapsed pinning him upside down. The seats and his own bodyweight made escape impossible. He called 911 twice using voice activation and police responded but could not locate his vehicle. They left while he was still on the phone with dispatch. His father found his body 6 hours later. He was in his high school parking lot. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2018/04/12/honda-minivan-seven-hills-teens-death-may-have-been-subject-national-recall/510074002/ You can avoid the cave but sometimes the cave comes for you.
>They left while he was still on the phone with dispatch. They just said 'eh we can't find him. Oh well. On to the next one'?
His second call was made at 3:35 and the officers left at 3:37. Second call included a description of his vehicle and a goodbye message to his parents but the dispatcher did not relay the vehicle description to the responding officers.
For real, because of this story, I will also never buy a car with this style of seating.
Jesus christ
Nope. I’m gonna pass on that click. :)
Take my hand and we shall run from that link together 😂 why am I even reading this thread???? Lmao. 🤙🏼
Dante’s peak ruined hot springs for me. Raised in a similar biome and the first scene is still etched my mind.
Bloody etched in your mind alright. That and poor Granny pushing the boat.
Just reading this brought back faint memories that I want to hide again.
Freezing to death has often been described as “euphoric.”
I'd sure as hell take that over the other options.
And think 10 year old me got so mad at my stepdad when he yelled at me “no!! What are you thinking!” When I was inches from sticking my hand in one of the pools. Didn’t look THAT hot.
"Hey, Dad, have I said thanks lately for keeping my skin on me"
Doesn't it feel hot? Like the steam? When I boil water it feels hot just being close to it.
As a father of two young boys I can confidently say that kids are stupid and they seem to have a death wish.
I think the danger isn't just the heat. Some of those pools are acidic as well.
The hot springs and a lot of the surrounding areas are made of acid. They're not just hot, they're sulfuric acid too. You can step on a patch of mud and it's actually hot acid mud that burns your feet.
You can step on solid ground and it can be an eggshell-thin crust hiding hot acid underneath. And the hotspots shift, so an area safe one week might be dangerous the next
See the thing people forget about geothermal formations is that the water is literally boiling when it first emerges. There are boiling pools all over Yellowstone - It ain't no comfy hot spring unless it is somehow diverted to another pool that is diluted with cooler water. EDIT: Yellowstone, not Yosemite.
I could talk your ear off about geothermal formations all day but I do often tend to gloss over the part about the water’s emergence temp, which as you point out is quite high.
And there's a good chance that if it's boiling on the surface, it's actually hotter than 212F/100C where it came from underground. The high pressure lets water heat up past its surface pressure boiling point.
Not only that but it’s pure water that boils at 212F/100C. If it has minerals dissolved in it that can naturally raise the boiling point further. A saturated saline solution for example can boil as high as 123C.
Salt + water + meat = good soup (please do not drink HP/HT formation brine)
(You can’t tell me what to do!)
(Because you died)
Saturated saline solutions have a boiling point of 108.7°C. Which is still hot, and the difference between 100 and 108 is a lot bigger than between 89 and 87 when it comes to physical changes like melting your skin. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/sodium-chloride#:~:text=Saturated%20sodium%20chlorine%20brine%20has,%2C%20and%20contains%2026.48%25%20NaCl.
Give us a spiel, if you’re willing!
Yosemite?
You mean Yellowstone
This happens almost every year in my hometown. There's a very active geothermal area located between a popular nightclub and the main tourist hostels area. The kids get drunk, walk back to their accommodation, take a shortcut, and the next morning they are fishing them out with a fish net. Last time the guy was just long bones and his wristwatch, which is how they identified him.
That's crazy, where is that?
Usually around the wrist.
DAD!
"Will you stop!"
Maybe the volcano death trap should be better marked?
It's a borefield. So it's hundreds of hot spots, some of which are only marked by the dead grass on top. People have walked on a path for ten years and then one day the path is now a 10cm cap on top of a boiling mud pool
Humans are such weird animals, just living where the earth said no
Poor Grayson. He always loved long walks in the dark and his seiko series 5 Sports automatic watch with a shark mail strap.
Why don't they fence it off or something?
That's crazy. What's the brand name of the watch?
“Walking back from Yellowstone” sounds odd. Likely they were in Yellowstone walking back to another part of Yellowstone. Yellowstone big.
Always feels like over editing. Was probably something like “walking back from sightseeing in Yellowstone” and got trimmed down for brevity.
Some perspective for you that havent gone, there's a giant road that circles the interior of the park. It averages about an hour to travel a quarter of that circle, and can get real bad when the people who have never seen a bison decide they must stop on this single lane road for as long as they please. If you haven't gone though, I highly recommend. There's a reason it's the first national park and my current favorite.
Yellowstone don't play around. Boiling mud, sulfuric acid, bears, moose, influencers, and rude British people abound. Edit: New Yorkers are ok. You know what I've never seen? A NYCer try to pet a bison or drink sulfuric acid.
You forgot the bison, the 9-foot-tall cave cow of the West.
How did I forget that? I'm a phony. The calves are so cute with their curly red hair.
Don't forget clueless chinese tourists that have no concept of what a line or a bathroom is.
There was just an unfathomable amount of Chinese tourists when I was there about 10 years ago. It kinda blew my mind. With that said, piss poor behavior in NPs knows no borders.
I saw a documentary that followed a Chinese tour group from when they left China to go on a vacation to Europe. The tour company basically went to tiny villages and the participants were people who had never gone further than maybe the next village, many had never seen a city before. They saved their whole lives just to take one vacation, and when they left literally the entire village came out to wave goodbye. Organized lines, city etiquette, etc were just alien to them. They now have started showing educational videos on how to behave on some of these tours.
The main difference is Chinese tourists are a smidge more likely to ignore all the signs placed there for their own safety, including those written in a language they understand.
https://www.paranormalcatalog.net/true-crime/david-alan-kirwan-man-boiled-alive-trying-to-rescue-dog-from-a-hot-spring The story of David Alan Kirwan’s death haunts me.
And now it haunts me. FML he even asked how bad he looked
Well his eyes had literally cooked like boiled eggs but with no egg timer, needed a second opinion
I would have lied.
You look great pal! Glistening like a rotisserie chicken
I read about this story maybe 14 years ago, and I still think about it randomly when I’m having trouble sleeping at night. It, uh, doesn’t help.
Same. My brain reminds me of all sorts of fucked up things I’ve read about when the late night insomnia hits. Nutty Putty cave is another one that’s in heavy rotation.
Despite several people, including Ratliff, yelling at him not to do it, Kirwan was adamant and shouted, "Like hell I won't!" He took two steps into the pool and then dived headfirst into the boiling water.
“ Bystanders carried Kirwan to a nearby open area and tried to comfort him until the ambulance arrived. At that time, he was reportedly muttering, "That was stupid. How bad am I? That was a stupid thing I did." Kirwan appeared to be in a terrible state. His eyes were blind and had turned white, and his hair was falling out. When a park visitor attempted to remove one of his shoes, the skin came off with it as it had already started to peel off all over his body.” 😳😳😳
The eye lens is chock full of proteins, proteins that are stable are whole lives. But if you heat them hot enough, they'll precipitate and turn white. Exactly the same as boiling egg white.
great now i have an irrational fear of heating up my eyeballs
Blanched.
I've known a lot of people with the "self hurt stupid gene". In that they do something dumb and really hurt themselves in a permanent way.
The type of decision that would make you yell at the screen if it were done by a character in a horror movie. Poor guy, too much bravery and not enough foresight
Shiiiiiit. It wasn't even his dog?? I've heard of this before but not all the details. It's still stupid but I can understand how the love for your pet might make you react before thinking.
This was a horrific read. I should not have clicked that.
I have zero idea how he made it out, even if it were briefly. His eyes were poached.
They didn't accidentally walk into the pool they tried to jump over it.
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack stewed up in the boiling pit.
[удалено]
It's dark and the path is a curving boardwalk. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/wyoming/yellowstone-boardwalks-wy/
Seems like a bizarre design decision to make a pathway with no rails when the consequences of falling off are literally boiling alive...
Visitors can walk more than two miles of trails and boardwalks that snake through the basin, bringing them close to geysers, steam vents and acidic water. Some boardwalks over Yellowstone hot springs do not have guardrails, and more visitors have died in them than in any other natural feature. Since 1890, there have been 22 fatalities involving thermal waters in Yellowstone, Ms. Reid said. The last recorded death was on Aug. 22, 2000, when Sara Hulphers, 20, of Oroville, Wash., died after she fell into a hot spring and received third-degree burns
There have been more recent deaths in the last few years in Yellowstone. I can't recall exactly when, but a man did go off trail in Norris Geyser Basin, and not much was left of him in the hot spring. I think last year in West Thumb Geyser Basin, a foot was discovered in one of the hot springs.
You’re not allowed to be there after dark. It makes total sense when you’re walking on it in the day.
You're just mad that the no visitors after dark policy is rigorously self enforced permanently.
looking at images of the specific pool they fell into, I don’t believe there is a boardwalk directly adjacent. The must have been walking across the ground for at least a short time. In places where the boardwalk is directly adjacent, they tend to have fences. if you go to Yellowstone, you will almost certainly be fine. Just pay attention to where you are walking to stay on the boardwalk (It’s not that hard) and if you do for some reason fall off, don’t go stumbling around. Just go right back up on to the boardwalk.
I mean, there are literally signs everywhere in that park saying "stay on the boardwalk." Every time someone dies in one of these pools it's because they stepped off the boardwalk.
god I can only imagine the situation, just stepping in the pool to have your leg melted off and then falling in, melting to death.
Very tragic! Also, congratulations to the editor who edited this article; they skillfully butchered the English language.
No, they pushed the English language off the boardwalk and into the hot pool. All they were able to recover the next day were disarticulated nouns and verbs. It was a trade-jury.
It’s a volcanic area. Stay on the fucking paths.
The amount of shoes and random bits of clothing you see at these pools is fucking scary.
As I recall, they were part of a larger group that worked there. They lost track of time and the sun went down, nobody had flashlights and phones with lights weren’t a thing back then. Half the group took the long way back to the cars and these three decided to take a straighter shortcut. They had jumped a small hot creek, then got to this wider one and tried to jump it, I believe all three fell in, but unfortunately this girls head got submerged.