The fatal collapse near Yellowstone Park highlights the risk of scenic routes – Country

In a fiery van crash in eastern Idaho, the deaths of at least six foreign nationals are reminding people that visitors from around the world and visitors from Grand Teton National Park around the world travel on scenic trails that could be as dangerous as grizzly bears and boiling hot pools in the area.

The truck collided with a pickup truck on a highway in western Yellowstone on Thursday. Both vehicles were on fire and the survivors were taken to the injured hospital, according to police. Officials said the killings came from Italy and China.

The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco said eight Chinese citizens were injured in the crash. The accident happened after a 2019 crash on a bus in Las Vegas, carrying Chinese tourists rolling around Bryce National Park in southern Utah, killing four people and dozens of people.

It is unclear where the van came from in Thursday's accident. After snowy days, some Yellowstone roads, including the old faithful one (the most famous geyser in the park) remain closed.

The accident occurred on the highway south of West Yellowstone, Montana, and at this time of year provides a way to get between Yellowstone and Grand Teton, then farmed on the north-south route, the park is fully open in the summer.

According to the latest data from the International Trade Administration, 36% of international tourists come to the United States through listed national parks and national monuments as its highest leisure activity

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According to a study on park visitor use, 17% of Yellowstone’s visitors come from other countries in 2016 and provide the latest comprehensive data.

Visitors from Europe and Asia account for the majority of travelers outside the United States, 34% from China, 11% from Italy and 10% from Canada ROM.

Brian Riley said the co-19-year-old pandemic has changed those numbers considerably, with his Wyoming-based business, old handhelds selling the Yellowstone area in China and touring.

“Every Chinese have taught Yellowstone in their primary school,” Riley said Friday.

Riley observed that the pandemic has put sharp brakes on various tourism industries, especially from China, which has not yet recovered. He said that now, visits from people who already live in the United States are mostly Chinese people.

“Overall, they don't feel safe here as before,” Riley said Friday. “The Chinese are preaching behind the scenes.”

The U.S. tourism industry is expected to be another good year for foreign tourists. But for months, the international arrival has been declining. President Donald Trump's anger over the tariffs and speeches and was shocked by the arrest of tourists arrested at the border, some citizens of other countries are moving away from the United States and choosing to travel elsewhere.

Riley, who grew up in Jackson, Wyoming, south of Grand Teton, lived in China for a while to learn Mandarin and why Chinese want to visit the United States, has recently focused more on getting them to visit Hawaii, a country that is considered dangerous and less dangerous.

According to Riley and West Yellowstone Mayor Jeff McBirnie, the crowds in Yellowstone peaked in the summer, but international tourism peaked in the spring and fall.

Many foreign tourists are parents to international students at American universities and universities.

“They are like, ‘Hey, let’s put our kids down and go on vacation for a week.’ Or the kids’ graduation, let’s go to college and go on vacation,” said McBeeney, who owns a pizza restaurant in town. “They do have a huge economic impact on the town.”

Yellowstone suffered a punch or two between the 2022 pandemic and devastating flooding, which cuts the park access for months.

Last year, tourism rebounded with 4.7 million tourists, which was the largest inventory in Yellowstone.

The winding roads and natural disturbances help cause many accidents in and around the park.

The first death in Yellowstone involved in passenger cars was years after the park replaced the stage coach and horses for transportation in the early years.

In 1921, a 10-person bus drove off the road in the park's Fishing Bridge area and drove down the embankment, killing a 38-year-old Texas woman in the neck, according to park historian Lee Whittlesey.

Whittlesey in his book The Death in Yellowstone. Death caused from drowning in hot springs, harassment, plane crashes and murders. Whittlesey wrote that car deaths were so “legions” in the park that he felt they were too ordinary to include in the death statistics.

Another death toll at Yellowstone says at least 17 people have died in the park since 2007, ranking it as the second most common cause of death after medical problems.

Whittlesey heralds a chapter of his book, covering road deaths and attributed to the 15th-century soothsayer mom Shipton: “The carriage without horses will go, and the accident has filled the world with scourges.”

& Copy 2025 Canadian Press