Officials at Yellowstone National Park are investigating reports that a tourist crashed a drone into the famous and picturesque Grand Prismatic hot spring. "We've got eyewitness reports that it went into the spring on Saturday," park spokesman Al Nash said Wednesday in a phone interview with NBC News. "Assuming we can locate the device, we have to determine whether we can remove it without creating any damage. The whole incident remains under investigation."

The National Park Service in June banned drones from all NPS-controlled lands and waters. "This is a fairly new rule," Nash explained, "so our goal right now is to help visitors understand that it is against the law to fly an unmanned aircraft in national parks. Our goal is always to inform and educate our visitors — a citation is not our first choice." The immediate task, though, is to find the drone in 150 feet of 160-degree water. Said Nash of the Grand Prismatic spring: "It's a deep one."

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A drone recently crashed into one of Yellowstone National Park's iconic hot springs. http://t.co/BKzT5n5sHZ pic.twitter.com/R9dzoy0HnX — KPAX Missoula News (@kpaxnews) August 6, 2014

Tourist crashes drone into Yellowstone hot spring, or: this is why we can't have nice things: http://t.co/LXRymouKyq — PetaPixel (@petapixel) August 6, 2014

Remember, drones are illegal in ALL National Parks, including Yellowstone. Try not to submerge it into a hot spring http://t.co/hxPdFgTIRY — Damon Lane (@KOCOdamonlane) August 6, 2014

— Devin Coldewey, NBC News