09/27/2026
Every summer, Yellowstone's geology team heads into the park's hot spring basins with fishing rods, slotted spoons and grabber poles. They're trained to move around scalding water and thin crust that can break under a person's weight.
This year they set a record: more than 20,100 pieces of trash, plus 5,600 rocks and sticks people threw in.
Hats were a big one, 280 of them. Hot spring basins are windy, and a loose cap can end up somewhere nobody can safely reach. Crews also found sunglasses, lens caps, hotel key cards, pacifiers, golf tees, rubber ducks, glittery pink slime, retainers and floss picks.
People treat the springs like wishing wells, too. Crews pulled out more than $18 in coins, including pesos, yen and euros.
It isn't just ugly. A hot spring is a vent in the ground, and trash can clog it, change how the water flows, or leach chemicals into it. Coins can damage the bacteria and algae that give these springs their colors, and that damage can take months or years to recover.
Hats that are still wearable get washed and donated.
Keep your hat on your head and your coins in your pocket.
