There’s One Unexpected Issue That’s Causing Trouble For Yellowstone National Park’s Hydrothermal Areas

If you had to guess what’s causing headaches at Yellowstone National Park, what would you say?

Could it have to do with the wild animals that call the park home? Or maybe the tourists that are often nicknamed “tourons” because they get too close to those very creatures? Those would both be good guesses, but when it comes to a serious issue that Yellowstone National Park is currently combating in their hydrothermal areas, there’s actually an unexpected culprit.

Hats.

To give you some background information, the 174-degree thermal pools and springs that are scattered throughout Yellowstone are nothing to be messed with. Over 20 people have died after they entered or accidentally fell into the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. There are signs everywhere that warn visitors not to get off the boardwalks or approach the hot springs, and most of the time, the tourists are smart enough to head those warnings.

The thermal areas typically located near or around the park’s geysers are very sensitive. The bacterial mats around the Grand Prismatic and elsewhere throughout the park house fragile living organisms. Called thermophiles, the delicate organisms are only able to survive in the heat of the thermal basin, and are incredibly fragile when it comes to unnatural disturbances.

That’s why hats, specifically abandoned hats, have caused such a problem for the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program. Anything that ends up in the thermal areas (even naturally occurring things like rocks and sticks) have to be removed, and people losing their hats in the thermal areas are just another thing that they have to worry about and meticulously extract:

“So far in 2025, the Yellowstone Geology crew has collected more than 13,000 pieces of trash, 4,000 rocks and sticks, and over 300 hats (estimated to be worth upwards of $6,000!) from hydrothermal areas.

In doing so, they have covered over 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) of trails and boardwalks on foot and have driven more than 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) to reach the various thermal areas throughout Yellowstone National Park.”

Hats off to the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program for being able to creatively retrieve all of those items out of the hydrothermal areas (thanks, I’ll be here all week).

There are over 10,000 hydrothermal areas that the Geology Program is responsible for. I only bring that up because… that’s a lot of ground to cover, and as you can see in the above image, that’s a lot of headwear that could have stayed on the noggin of those that visited. I guess the silver lining is that people aren’t trekking out on the sensitive areas to retrieve their hats.

But as the Yellowstone Geology Program went on to say, there’s a simple way to avoid this situation altogether:

“You can help protect Yellowstone as well! When you visit the park, hold on tight to your hats, stay on marked boardwalks and trails, and make sure all your trash (even the food!) ends up in a trash can.”

To conclude, I want you to read this next part and imagine that Smokey the Bear is saying it. Only YOU can prevent your hats and trash from ending up in Yellowstone National Park’s hydrothermal areas. If you plan on heading to the park anytime soon, make sure to hold on to your hats…The post There’s One Unexpected Issue That’s Causing Trouble For Yellowstone National Park’s Hydrothermal Areas first appeared on Whiskey Riff.