Stuff gets lost, especially when visitors are taking in awe-inspiring natural sites.
Yellowstone National Park staff shared some of the weird, wonderful and downright gross stuff that has been left behind.
Yellowstone National Park boasts 4.5 million visitors every year and as park officials said, “staff have to work constantly to remove litter from the park’s hydrothermal areas. Whether intentional (like discarded orange peels or sunflower seed shells) or unintentional (like items dropped accidentally off a boardwalk).”
But what exactly have they had to clean up this year?
As of this month, the park’s Geology team removed 20,100 pieces of trash, 5,600 rocks and sticks that are not supposed to be there, and more than 280 hats from the hydrothermal areas. The hat haul is already a record and they’ll be cleaned and donated, park officials said.
Some of the notable items sorted by type include:
Most common
- Camera lens caps (54)
- Hair ties (47)
- Binkies (17)
- Hotel key cards (20)
- Pencils (42)
- Sunglasses (36)
Hats
- FIFA 2026 Men’s World Cup hat
- Baseball cap with “Cowboy Hat” written on it
- Roblox bucket hat
Money ($18.00 in coins alone)
- US coins and bills
- Pesos
- Yen
- Euros
- Canadian dollars
Toys
- Mini race cars (8)
- Bouncy Balls (3)
- Figurines (22)
- Junior Ranger badges (6)
- Fidget spinner
- Rubber ducks (2)
- McDonald’s toy from 2010
Odd items
- 5 Airpods
- 3 Delta Flight Pins
- Inhaler
- 3 golf tees
- Uno card
Grossest
- Invisalign retainers (6)
- Fake nails (15)
- Floss picks
- Glitter slime stuck to geyserite sinter pieces
Staff favorites
- Instant/Polaroid pictures (7)
- Yellowstone pressed pennies (6)
- Pokémon cards (4)
- 2-inch copy of “The Vampire Diaries”
No matter what is left behind, either intentionally or unintentionally, it has to be removed or it can damage or permanently alter a hydrothermal feature, including blocking a water supply, redirecting a runoff channel or polluting it with chemicals and/or sediment, Yellowstone officials said.
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