YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — A 3-year-old child was burned in a thermal feature in Yellowstone National Park.
The child ran off a trail Friday near Midway Geyser Basin on the park's western side. The child slipped and fell into a small thermal feature, park officials said.
The child was flown to a burn unit at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls with second-degree burns to the lower body and back.
Park officials were investigating. The child's identity, condition and whether the child was a boy or girl weren't immediately available.
It was the second injury in a Yellowstone thermal feature this year. A woman backing up and taking photos fell into a hot spring or fumarole near Old Faithful Geyser in May.
The woman had entered the park illegally while it was closed due to the coronavirus.
In Sept. 2019, a man suffered severe burns after falling into thermal water near the cone of the Old Faithful Geyser.
Park officials stressed that the ground in hydrothermal areas around Yellowstone is fragile and thin, and there's scalding water just below the surface. Officials say visitors should always remain on boardwalks and trails and should use extreme caution around thermal features.
The national park's peak season is typically from May through September. Yellowstone recently reported that it had the most-ever September visitors.
The increase contrasts sharply with May, when visitation rates were 90% lower compared to the same month last year.
The park recorded about 837,000 visits in September, a rate 21% higher than September 2019 and 15.6% higher than the park's second-busiest September on record in 2018, when it hosted 724,000 people.
Yellowstone was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic from March 24 to May 18, when its two Wyoming entrances reopened.
