Five visitors to Yellowstone National Park recently found themselves in hot water—quite literally—when their SUV ended up in a geyser.
On the morning of Thursday, July 11, a sport-utility vehicle carrying the park goers plunged into an acidic thermal pond called Semi-Centennial Geyser, which is located next to the popular Grand Loop Road. from the park, all five were able to flee the vehicle before it sunk in nine feet of water.
They then waded through the 105-degree pond—which is slightly warmer than a typical hot tub—and made it safely to shore. Officials transported them to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The vehicle spent a day at the bottom of the thermal feature, which is located near the Roaring Mountain attraction, just south of Mammoth Hot Springs. Then, on Friday morning, work crews closed the road so that recovery specialists and trained divers could hoist it out of the water with a crane. Photos showed the drenched SUV being towed up the side of a steep grassy hillside above the hot pond. Officials said they are investigating the incident.
While not considered one of the park’s biggest attractions, Semi-Centennial Geyser’s history is linked to the park’s creation. On August 14, 1922 the pond erupted without warning, shooting water 300 feet into the air. The explosion occurred during the park’s 50th anniversary, and officials gave it the name “Semi-Centennial” to mark the historic date.
of National Parks Magazine, eyewitnesses said the eruption launched water, tree stumps, and rocks onto the roadway. “The geyser has three openings, which act together in order to give one of those powerful shots,” a ranger named E. Matthew told the publication. “I saw one eruption from two tubes that reached a height of about 125 feet.” At the time, officials hypothesized that the new geyser could someday outshine the park’s more popular destinations. But Semi-Centennial Geyser never erupted again.
Officials likely could not have predicted that, 102 years later, the geyser would be site of just one more bizarre news stories from an already troubling year at the country’s oldest national park.