The river is usually closed to swimming until mid-summer due to high water and strong currents. During years with significant snowpack and runoff, the swim area may remain closed for the entire season.
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Due to high spring water levels, the swimming area isn't usually open until the middle of summer and closes before winter. Some years, the snow runoff and currents are too aggressive and cause the site to stay closed for the entire normally-open season.
The Boiling River should be on your “Yellowstone must see” list along with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Old Faithful Geyser. It's not as dramatic as either of these, but it is one of two front country places to swim in Yellowstone in a hot spring.
Bring your suit and swim in the Boiling River There is a little known secret in Yellowstone... there are only two places in the park that you are allowed to swim and one of them is just 2.5 miles north of Mammoth Hot Springs. It is a truely unique experience and one not to be missed.
However, Yellowstone is also an active geothermal area with hot springs emerging at ~92°C (~198°F) (the boiling point of water at Yellowstone's mean altitude) and steam vents reported as high as 135°C (275°F).
Over 20 people have died after falling into Yellowstone's hot springs, or after having become severely burned after touching one. The park's hot springs are one of the park's most dangerous features. However, deaths are still an incredibly rare event.
Despite its unique nature, National Geographic has described it as an entirely natural feature: a non-volcanic, geothermal feature flowing at anomalously high rates. The predominant theory for the source of this heat is from the geothermal gradient of the Earth.
This is a remarkable accumulation of buffalo bones on the floor of a hot spring in the River Group of Yellowstone's Lower Geyser Basin. The object at center is the skull of an American buffalo (Bison bison).