Hiking among Thermal pools in the backcountry

Off we went into the unknown. We were looking for a thermal pool called tomato soup due to its orange color. A coworker of mine drew a map from memory for us to follow. There is no trail as the park service doesn't want people falling in due to the thin crusted layers in this area. We were told that we would be ok as long as we follow the hot stream, the animal scat (poop), and their trail. The entire hike was walking over fallen trees, sidestepping marshy areas, hopping streams, and not stepping in animal scat. Well, I stepped into a fresh pile of Bison scat. Yes, they are large piles. About a half mile into our hike Claire said, "I feel faint". Now I am thinking that I have to carry her, the backpack, and my camera gear back to the car. So we sat a spell drinking our water and she started to feel better. So off we went looking for the elusive "tomato soup". Along the way we came across a lot of Bison bones, bear, elk, and bison prints in the mud. Are we the next victim of the bear? We are brave so we continued our trek. By the way we are walking among thermal features and the ground can be unstable. You use a large stick to poke the ground as you walk. You are forever hearing thud, thud. This sound tells you that the ground is somewhat unsafe and there are thermal pools under us. Remember we are walking on top of a volcano. We came across several deep blue thermal pools, hot springs, bubbling mud pots, bubbling and spouting mini-geysers. What a cool place. Most of the fallen trees as well as the Bison bones are quite bleached out by the hot water from the streams and thermal pools. We reached an area where we were close to tomato soup. To our left was a rather steep hill so I decided to hike up this hill to get a better look. Great view up here but no idea where tomato soup was. So off we went into the unknown hoping to find tomato soup. We found more thermal pools but no tomato soup. Now we are in the middle of no where, no trails, just instinct as to which way to go. By this time Claire has had enough, 2 miles of hiking, side stepping the poop, hoping we don't fall into the volcano never to be found again. Unknown to me Claire was stashing rocks that she thought were geodes and Bison bones into her backpack, she was getting tired. I offered to carry her backpack but she said no. (didn't want me to know about the rocks and bones). We worked our way back to the stream and managed to head in the right direction. Now Claire said she just heard a growl. Grizzly bears hang out in this area so we step up our pace. Now I hear a thud and turn around to find Claire on the ground. She caught her foot on a tree root and down she went. Got her up and we continued on to find a spot where we could jump to the other side of the stream to get back to where the car was parked. I jumped across the stream and then told Claire to give me her hand so I could pull her across. Got her across except for her into her one foot that landed into the hot stream and mud. Unknown to me that she must have had 50 pounds of stuff in her backpack. We did make it back to the car hiking for about 4-5 miles. The day was beautiful, we saw a lot of features that most people don't get to see. As far as tomato soup, there is always next year. Less than two weeks and off we go to sunny Florida.