Watt Cressey, a park employee who was headed to a late night “hot potting” party—a soak in a warm thermal—with other park employees in 1975, but accidentally jumped into a pool that was 179 degrees.
The most unfortunate of all of Yellowstone’s hot spring deaths, however, may be the case of David Kirwan, a 24-year-old from California. On July 20, 1981, his friend’s dog, Moosie, jumped into the Celestine Pool, a 202-degree spring. Kirwan, seeing the dog suffer, prepared to dive in. “Don’t go in there!” a bystander yelled. “Like hell I won’t!” Kirwan replied and dove head first into the water. He died the next morning of his burns.
It's kind of a weird place, with all the people and traffic, cheek-by-jowl with wild animals and huge expanses of wilderness...So many visitors come with little idea at all of the vastness, the danger, while park employees can grow clubbish, insular, and sometimes wander into peril themselves.
I avoid it just because I don't like rules and government officials enforcing the rules. A person can hike and climb in the nearby national forests forever, and for free.
But for those who like it---party on!