Woman suffers third-degree burns while walking in thermal area in Yellowstone National Park

A 60-year-old woman received third-degree burns while walking in a thermal area in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming this week, according to park officials.

The incident occurred on Monday when the woman, of Windsor, New Hampshire, walked in a thermal area near Mallard Lake Trailhead at Old Faithful, according to a Wednesday statement from the National Park Service.

The woman, who was seriously injured, was not named.

She was walking off-trail with her husband and a leashed dog when she broke through a thin crust above “scalding water” and suffered second-and-third-degree burns to her lower leg, the park service said.

The woman’s husband and the dog were not injured, officials said.

She was treated at a park medical clinic and then airlifted to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, according to the park service.

The woman’s injury marks the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone this year, officials said.

Visitors are urged to practice “extreme caution” in hydrothermal areas by staying on boardwalks and trails.

Pets are prohibited on boardwalk and hiking trails in the backcountry and in thermal areas, according to the park service.

Grounds in hydrothermal areas are thin and there is scorching water just below the surface, officials said.

The incident is under investigation, according to the park service.

A hydrothermal explosion in July sent visitors running for safety at Yellowstone. The explosion spewed rock and steam into the air north of the Old Faithful geyser. There were no injuries.

And in March, actor Pierce Brosnan, best known for playing James Bond, was fined after he posted photos of himself standing on off-limits thermal areas of Yellowstone in the previous year.

In August 2023, a Michigan man was charged with two federal misdemeanors after he burned himself in one of Yellowstone’s thermal areas, federal prosecutors said.

He was accused of “being under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the degree he was a danger to himself or others.”