The BoingBoing comments section is harshest “burn unit” of all.
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Have you seen other sites?
Most of us are veritable ‘saints’ by comparison…
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Mauled by a bear, boiled in a thermal feature, lost in a snowstorm, hit by rocks – take your pick! Yellowstone has so many choices!
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One of the stories involves a guy who jumped into a thermal feature to save his dog. He made it out and lived briefly but didn’t survive.
Gory details:
the skin from his hands was found at the edge of the pool where he climbed out. Burns over 100% of his body. His eyes had boiled and were a pale white.
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Looking at that picture i can see that the boardwalk has plenty of sections that have no railing. That seems… uhh… like a liability.
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That’s like saying cities are liable for jaywalkers because sidewalks don’t have railing.
Seriously, it’s not hard to stay on the dang path.
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Considering the ‘idiot asshole’ factor; it does seem like a potential liability, if there’s nothing to stop someone from pushing someone else off the boardwalk.
Sadly, there are such individuals who see such behavior as ‘pranks or jokes.’
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So for a dangerous pathway along thermals shouldn’t have at a minimum hand railings?
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The super-hot spots aren’t evenly distributed.
The hand railings are in the parts of the walkway where falling off the path would put you directly in the dangerously hot thermal features. The parts without railing are in places where taking one step off the path (intentionally or otherwise) would be unlikely to cause grievous bodily harm.
The idea is to put the minimum amount of man-made crap into our scenic natural wonders as we can generally get away with.
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At our local national park tourist thing there are lots of signs giving people a warning.
People ignore them regularly.
Shrug
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For reference, the Grand Canyon has a similar book
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I picked up this book at a gift shop in Yellowstone. The first chapter is devoted to hot springs, and the first story is about that guy that dove into the hot spring to save a dog.
Highly recommended.
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Took this on a trip to Yellowstone a few years back. Here’s the warning sign that’s in front of most of the hot spring and geyser areas.
I like the illustration of the kid that’s wandered off the path and broken through the thin ground, falling into a concealed hot spring where he will be boiled alive, while his sister points helplessly, screaming in horror as their oblivious parent wanders off.
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Many of the thermal features in Iceland have no barrier and just a sign telling you that there is boiling water just beneath your feet. The local attitude is that if you’re dumb enough to go off the path then you can enjoy the view while the ambulance makes its slow way from Reykjavík.
And yes it’s the tourists. Right now some of them think it’s safe to walk on the lava that’s just erupted out of Geldingadalir. Warm on the surface, 1000C a few cm down and a surface as sharp as broken glass - but still got to get that selfie for the ‘gram.
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Yep, this must happen all. the. time. at Yellowstone. When I was there, about 2016, I saw a party of foreign tourists who were getting all close to a lone bison that was foraging near a boardwalk. They had their maybe 5 year old kid with them, and they were trying to position themselves for that person photo. I filmed the whole thing, waiting for my 10 seconds of viral vid. Lucky for them, I remain a viral video virgin.
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I’m thinking railings over a section of land that is extremely hot would also make the railings pretty dangerous as a result of convection action. 
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She got off easy. One wrong step, and she could have got the 3rd degree.
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I knew a guy who worked at Holloman AFB who died there in 2018. Went for a walk, got disoriented (we presume) and his body was found months later. You don’t have to go too far into the dunes before everything looks the same, plus it can be eerily quiet there so you don’t hear the road noise to get your bearings.
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