Old Faithful
Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY
Yellowstone National Park, WY
The geyser that keeps its promise, sending a tower of steam and hot water skyward on a schedule reliable enough to build a park around.
Old Faithful is the most famous geyser in the world, and the reason is right there in its name. Again and again, day and night, year after year, it sends a roaring column of hot water and steam soaring more than a hundred feet into the air, on a schedule regular enough that rangers can post the time of the next eruption.
It was one of the first features named when the Washburn expedition explored this country in 1870, and its reliability made it a symbol of the whole idea of a national park, a natural wonder held in trust for everyone. Around it spreads the Upper Geyser Basin, holding roughly a quarter of all the geysers on the planet, so the star of the show is only the beginning.
What Guests Love
- Watching the eruption climb over a hundred feet into the air on its dependable schedule
- The grand log-and-timber lobby of the historic Old Faithful Inn
- Walking the boardwalks to dozens of other geysers and hot springs nearby
- The predicted eruption times posted so you can plan your day around the show
Worth Knowing
- Rangers post the next predicted eruption time, and the interval runs on the order of an hour to an hour and a half
- Stay on the boardwalks at all times; the ground is thin crust over scalding water
- The area is busiest midday in summer, so come early or late for smaller crowds
- The whole Upper Geyser Basin rewards a longer walk beyond Old Faithful itself
Details
Yellowstone National Park, WY
Learn about Old Faithful
How a geyser keeps time
A geyser is a hot spring with a constriction in its plumbing. Water seeps deep underground, is heated by the shallow magma beneath Yellowstone, and rises back toward the surface. The narrow passages trap the water and let pressure build until it flashes to steam and blasts out in an eruption, then the system refills and the cycle begins again.
Old Faithful is not perfectly punctual, but it is remarkably regular, with intervals that rangers predict from the length of the previous eruption. Each display lasts a few minutes and throws thousands of gallons skyward before subsiding, and then the long, patient recharge starts over.
The greatest gathering of geysers on Earth
Yellowstone sits atop one of the largest volcanic systems in the world, and that heat drives more than half of all the geysers on the planet, most of them clustered in a few basins along the Firehole River. The Upper Geyser Basin around Old Faithful is the densest of all.
A network of boardwalks leads to giants like Grand, Castle, Riverside, and Beehive geysers, along with brilliant hot springs such as Morning Glory Pool. Some erupt on their own long rhythms, some are wildly unpredictable, and wandering among them is like walking through the workings of the planet itself.
The Old Faithful Inn
Facing the geyser stands the Old Faithful Inn, built in the early 1900s and considered one of the great log hotels in the world. Its soaring lobby rises through several stories of gnarled lodgepole pine, with a huge stone fireplace and hand-crafted ironwork, and it helped define the rustic national-park architecture that followed.
Generations of travelers have watched Old Faithful erupt from the inn's porch and upper decks. The building is a landmark in its own right, a monument to an era when reaching Yellowstone was a grand journey and the park was still being written into the American imagination.
The living park around it
Long before it was a park, this high plateau was known and traveled by many tribes, among them the Shoshone, whose Sheepeater bands lived in the Yellowstone high country, and their descendants and other nations retain deep ties to this land. Bison, elk, and the occasional bear move through the meadows and thermal areas, and it is vital to keep a safe distance.
Summer is the warm, busy season, when the roads are open and the boardwalks full. Fall is crisp and quieter, and the geysers steam most dramatically against cold air. In winter the interior roads close to cars, and Old Faithful can be reached only by guided snowcoach or skis, erupting into a silent, snow-muffled world.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Yellowstone National Park
Grand Prismatic Spring
About 8 miles north
The largest hot spring in the country, ringed in rainbow bands of microbial color.
West Thumb Geyser Basin
About 17 miles east
Hot springs and geysers set right along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.
Grand Teton National Park
About 40 miles south
The jagged Teton Range rising straight from the valley floor, just beyond Yellowstone's south gate.