Two hikers were injured in a bear attack on a trail at Yellowstone National Park this week, forcing closures in some of the grounds, its operators said.
On Monday afternoon, two people in the Mystic Falls area of the park were attacked by “one or more” bears near the Old Faithful geyser, according to a statement on the park’s website.
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National Park Service emergency services responded to the incident, which remains under investigation, it said.
This is the first incident of a bear injuring a person in Yellowstone in 2026, according to the park.
Hiker Craig Lerman, a Maryland man who says he came across one of the victims, told the Wyoming-based news outlet Cowboy State Daily that he was on the Mystic Falls trail when he found bear prints in the mud.
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“I kept walking a little further and saw a bloody hat with a watch torn off,” he told the outlet, adding that he kept walking until he came across a severely injured person.
“He heard me coming and started saying, ‘Help. Help me.’
“At first, I thought it was a prank or joke. Kids playing games. But when I got close to him, I knew this was a serious matter.”
Lerman said the victim was “torn up pretty bad” and recalled seeing cuts all over his body, including his face, with “flesh next to him.”
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“I called 911 from my phone and took over the call from there,” Lerman explained, adding that the victim had already managed to call emergency services.
“I was scared the bear was going to come back around, so I just kept my head on a swivel.”
He later came across the second victim, and both were evacuated by helicopter, he said.
Lerman described his encounter with the victims as “scary, brutal,” and “not something I’ve ever seen before.”
Yellowstone is home to both black bears and grizzly bears as well as many other species, including bison, elk, moose, lynx, mountain lions and wolves.
The last time a visitor was injured by a bear in Yellowstone was in September 2025 in the northeast part of Yellowstone Lake.
The last human fatality caused by a bear attack in the national park occurred over a decade ago in 2015.
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