Yellowstone grizzly bear attack site was closed to spring hiking until 2024 to reduce human-grizzly conflicts
Ed’s note: This story was updated at 12:30 p.m., May 8, to include details of the grizzly bears involved.
Yellowstone National Park’s first reported grizzly bear attack of 2026 occurred in an area that was until recently off-limits to spring hiking to reduce the risk of human-grizzly bear conflicts.
Yellowstone officials disclosed Thursday that the Monday attack involved a female grizzly with two to three cubs of the year. The incident remains under investigation. Two brothers, ages 15 and 28, were injured while hiking. One was in critical condition and the other’s injuries were “serious,” according to the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
On Tuesday, Yellowstone announced that the attack occurred along the Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful. That trail, several others in the area, the Firehole River and a handful of backcountry campsites are closed pending the investigation’s completion.
Click to enlarge: Yellowstone National Park announced an area closure after two hikers were injured in a bear attack May 4 along the Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful. (National Park Service)
Until spring 2024, the Mystic Falls Trail wouldn’t have been accessible to legal hiking in the spring. It’s located within the former 20,670-acre Firehole Bear Management Area, once part of a complex of closed backcountry areas that Yellowstone restricts access to in order to reduce conflicts with grizzly bears.
Yellowstone decommissioned the Firehole Bear Management Area both to “provide recreational opportunities” and because park staff were documenting “fewer ungulate carcasses and wildlife conflicts” in the area, according to a March 2024 press release from the park.
“By decommissioning the Firehole BMA, the public will have access to Midway Geyser Basin Overlook, Fairy Falls, and Mystic Falls trails, which were previously closed to all recreational access between March 10 and the Friday of Memorial Day weekend,” park officials announced at the time.
The Firehole Bear Management Area was decommissioned at the same time Yellowstone added a new restricted area: the Hayden Valley Bear Management Area. That 16,453-acre zone, in central Yellowstone, restricts off-trail hiking from July 15 to Sept. 15 each year. The Mary Mountain Trail remains open.
It’s unclear if Yellowstone officials are considering restoring the now-defunct Firehole Bear Management Area in the wake of Monday’s attack.
Park officials did not authorize an interview before WyoFile’s story was published.
A Yellowstone representative, who did not identify himself, briefed grizzly bear managers about the incident during a Wednesday public meeting in Bozeman, Montana. Addressing the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee, the man cited the unusually warm spring as a potentially contributing factor.
“The area that this incident occurred, outside of Old Faithful, normally you’re postholing in snow,” the Yellowstone employee told the subcommittee. “The visitors have taken advantage of good hiking conditions.”
The two victims remain in Idaho Falls at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, he said.
“The investigation’s ongoing,” the man said, “and information and facts will be released at the appropriate time.”
