The Mystic Falls Trail attack is the park’s first reported bear injury incident of 2026.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Two hikers were injured Monday afternoon by one or more bears on the Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful, prompting temporary closures while Yellowstone National Park officials investigate the attack.
The National Park Service said emergency crews responded after the hikers were hurt on May 4. Officials had not released the hikers’ names, conditions or relationship as of the latest park update. The bear species also remained unknown. Yellowstone is home to grizzly bears and black bears, and officials said the encounter was still under review.
The attack happened on one of Yellowstone’s better-known hiking routes, a trail that leads toward Mystic Falls and draws visitors because it sits near the Old Faithful area. Park officials described the case as a single incident involving one or more bears. “National Park Service emergency services personnel responded to the incident, and it remains under investigation,” officials said. “No further information is available at this time.” The statement was issued May 5, one day after the hikers were injured.
After the attack, the park closed a broad area west of Grand Loop Road, from the north end of Fountain Flat Drive to Black Sand Basin. The closure included Fairy Falls Trail north of the Grand Prismatic Overlook, Sentinel Meadows Trail, Imperial Meadows Trail, Fairy Creek Trail and Summit Lake Trail. Backcountry campsites OG1, OD1, OD2, OD3, OD4 and OD5 also were closed. Fishing along the Firehole River and related tributaries inside the closure area was suspended while the investigation continued.
Several nearby areas remained open, including Midway Geyser Basin, Black Sand Basin and the Grand Prismatic Overlook Trail from the Fairy Falls Trailhead to the overlook. Park officials said the Fairy Falls Trail remained closed beyond the overlook. Portions of the Firehole River outside the closure area also stayed open to fishing. The closures placed the focus of the investigation on the backcountry corridor around the trail system west of Grand Loop Road, near some of the park’s most visited thermal features.
A hiker from Maryland, Craig Lerman, told Cowboy State Daily he came upon one of the injured hikers after seeing bear prints in mud and finding a bloody hat with a torn watch nearby. Lerman said he then heard the man calling for help. “At first, I thought it was a prank or joke,” Lerman said. “But when I got close to him, I knew this was a serious matter.” He said he called 911 from his own phone and stayed with the injured hiker until rangers reached the scene.
Lerman said the first responders were two National Park Service rangers who arrived on foot, followed by a helicopter and more emergency personnel. He said the injured hiker was cold and wet, so he covered him with a T-shirt while dispatchers guided the response. Lerman said he did not see the second injured hiker. Local reporting said the victims were later taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, but park officials had not confirmed hospital details in their public statement.
The attack was Yellowstone’s first bear injury incident of 2026. The last time a visitor was hurt by a bear in the park was in September 2025, when a 29-year-old hiker was injured on the Turbid Lake Trail northeast of Yellowstone Lake. In that case, officials later described the attack as a surprise encounter. The most recent fatal bear attack inside Yellowstone happened in 2015 in the Lake Village area, when a 63-year-old Montana man was killed while hiking alone.
Bear encounters remain rare in Yellowstone despite the park’s heavy visitor traffic. The park draws more than 4 million visits each year. Wildlife officials generally review bear attacks by looking at the location, the animal’s behavior, the presence of cubs or carcasses and whether the bear appeared to be acting defensively or predatory. In past cases, those facts have shaped whether managers closed areas, continued monitoring or took action involving the bear.
Investigators had not said whether the attack involved a grizzly bear, a black bear or more than one animal. Lerman told the Wyoming outlet he saw what he believed were two sets of bear tracks, one larger and one smaller, but he said any conclusion about a sow and cub would be an assumption. Park officials did not confirm that account in their public update. The official statement kept the description limited to one or more bears while the review continued.
The Mystic Falls Trail area sits near the park’s geyser basins and backcountry routes, where forest, meadow and thermal terrain meet. The location made the temporary closure highly visible because it affected a popular part of the park’s western side during the spring visitor season. Rangers were expected to use witness accounts, tracks, field signs and the hikers’ locations to piece together the sequence of the encounter.
The case remained under investigation Wednesday, with parts of the backcountry area still closed pending completion of the review. The next public milestone is expected to be a park update on the investigation, the status of the closures and any confirmed information about the bear or bears involved.
Author note: Last updated 2026-05-06.