Officials say tourists have ruined one of Yellowstone's most beautiful hot springs pools, turning what was once clear blue water into a colorful mess caused by coins and trash that have accumulated over the years.
Located near the famous “Old Faithful” geyser, Morning Glory Pool has been a must-see attraction in Yellowstone National Park's Upper Geyser Basin for many years. According to Cowboy State Daily.
“There are some lovely quotes about its beauty and its stunning blue color and how it resembles a morning glory flower,” Yellowstone National Park historian Alika Murphy told the outlet.
But park officials say early visitors more than a century ago weren't as concerned about the environment and didn't practice the strict “Leave No Trace” policies followed by outdoor enthusiasts today.
The bright blue pool filled with boiling water was treated as a wishing well, with visitors tossing coins, handkerchiefs, trash and all manner of other rubbish into its depths.
Murphy said that in America's first national park, established on March 1, 1872, tourists would often throw objects into any cracks or holes they found in the hopes that something interesting would emerge.
“People didn't understand plumbing or how geysers worked,” she said. “There was a lot of thinking, 'Maybe if I throw something in this pool, it'll erupt.'”
These objects have marred the pool's natural beauty, turning the deep blue water into a mixture of green, yellow, blue and orange.
“I think there was trial and error and a misunderstanding of the damage they were causing,” she added.
Murphy also argued that the phenomenon is due to humans having a compulsion to throw things into the water.
“The wishing well is an ancient tradition: you throw a coin into a wishing well and make a wish,” she continued. “There's something about pools of water that gives humans this weird instinct to throw something in.”
Mike Poland, chief scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said temperature changes in the hot spring pools are likely the main cause of the color change.
“Temperature is a big factor,” he says. “Warmer pools tend to be a bright blue color, while cooler pools can be more colorful because they're more conducive to bacterial growth.”
“In Morning Glory, people threw things in, which partially blocked the ducts, lowering the temperature and allowing all kinds of bacteria to grow.”
Former Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Jeff Henry said the National Park Service once conducted regular cleanups that were the equivalent of “harvesting a crop.”
At Morning Glory, this meant bringing in fire engines, pumping water and sending out crews to do the dirty work.
“A man wearing a climbing harness to stop himself from falling into the pool was holding a long-handled net and fishing something out of the water far below the mouth of the pool.”
According to Cowboy State Daily, teams painstakingly removed hundreds of objects, trying not to damage the delicate hot spring pools.
“We found several tonnes of coins, probably thousands of them,” Henry added, “a lot of rocks that shouldn't have been there. We also found some hats that had probably been blown off people's heads and landed in the swimming pool, and wisely people didn't try to retrieve them.”
But he says he doesn't think the park service would do anything similar now, given the difficulty of the job.
“Pool cleanings used to be a regular occurrence,” he says, “but values have changed and pools are no longer cleaned, at least not as frequently or to the extent that we used to.”
But people also have more respect for the park's stunning scenery, he added.
“You don't see as many coins being thrown in the pools anymore than you did when I first came to the park,” he said. “You used to find coins spread across the bottom of the more accessible springs, but now you rarely see anything being thrown in the pools.”
“I think people are a lot more polite now than when I was younger,” Henry says. “It's one of those things where values and behaviors have changed over the years.”
