In the summer of 2026, Yellowstone National Park completed its largest recorded debris removal from hydrothermal zones — 20,000 pieces of trash, including 280 hats pulled from geothermal vents. The effort quietly surfaces an older tension: what it means to invite millions of people into landscapes that predate human presence by millennia. These are not merely scenic backdrops but living systems, and what falls into them does not simply vanish. The record haul asks us to consider whether wonder, without stewardship, becomes a slow form of damage.