Over 4 million people visit Yellowstone National Park every year, bringing in a near constant stream of trash and clothing that they carry or wear on themselves. Occasionally those items are blown or dropped into the delicate hydrothermal areas that dot the park, and the Yellowstone Geology Program works to clean them up.
Teams use a collection of tools, some available on the shelf at your local hardware store, some a bit more specific, to reach this debris that often sits atop boiling water. Grabber poles (ranging from 2 feet to 30 feet), fishing poles, extra-long slotted spoons, and more are used by the Yellowstone Geology Program.
Any debris that falls into these sensitive hydrothermal features can irreversibly change their behavior, potentially lowering temperatures, changing colors, and altering or halting eruption behavior. Even sticks and rocks need to be removed to protect the springs.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, they pull out quite the variety of items from the hydrothermal features. So far in 2025, they’ve collected over 13,000 pieces of trash, over 4,000 rocks and sticks, and over 300 hats. Some of the more bizarre items have included a Birkenstock sandal, a pizza box with slices still inside, a fake Louis Vuitton bucket hat, a stuffed koala toy, and a ball cap with the phrase “I PEE IN THE LAKE.”
Let this be a reminder to tighten your hat before you head into a national park!
