January 1, Visitors Trash Yellowstone’s Sacred Thermal Pools

Wyatt’s Take

• Park workers pulled more than 23,000 pieces of trash from Yellowstone’s fragile hot springs this year alone.
• Foreign junk is changing water chemistry and destroying the natural beauty that belongs to all Americans.
• Time to restore common-sense rules and hold visitors accountable before more damage is done.

Yellowstone’s geology team hauled a record amount of garbage from the park’s famous thermal features this season. The haul included everything from plastic bottles to AirPods and even dental retainers.

Park staff also removed thousands of rocks and sticks that visitors tossed into the pools. These natural items still clog the delicate plumbing that keeps the springs flowing.

Margery Price, a physical science technician with the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program, told National Geographic, “We believe that most of those are accidental.”

Any foreign material can block water channels or pollute the pools. Microplastics and chemicals from trash are altering the water chemistry that gives Morning Glory Pool its famous blue color.

The Morning Glory spring earned the nickname “garbage can” back in the 1950s after visitors threw so much junk into it. Rangers drained the pool in the 1970s but the original crystal-blue hue never fully returned.

Over 4.7 million people visited Yellowstone last year. The heavy foot traffic around Old Faithful and Midway Geyser Basin leaves trash behind that winds carry into the hot springs.

Park officials warn that even small items can destroy the microbes that create the pools’ bright colors. Once the chemistry changes, the damage lasts for decades.

Wyatt Matters

America’s greatest natural treasures belong to working families who save for years to see them. These parks stay beautiful only when every visitor respects the land and leaves it cleaner than they found it.