Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park

On the afternoon of September 18, 1870, the members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition traveled down the Firehole River from the Kepler Cascades and entered the Upper Geyser Basin. The first geyser that they saw was Old Faithful. Nathaniel P. Langford wrote in his 1871 Scribner’s account of the expedition:

It spouted at regular intervals nine times during our stay, the columns of boiling water being thrown from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five feet at each discharge, which lasted from fifteen to twenty minutes. We gave it the name of “Old Faithful.

In the early days of the park, Old Faithful was often used as a laundry!

Old Faithful is sometimes degraded by being made a laundry. Garments placed in the crater during quiescence are ejected thoroughly washed when the eruption takes place. Gen. Sheridan’s men, in 1882, found that linen and cotton fabrics were uninjured by the action of the water, but woolen clothes were torn to shreds.

Between 1983 and 1994, four probes containing temperature and pressure measurement devices and video equipment were lowered into Old Faithful. The probes were lowered as deep as 72 feet (22 m). Temperature measurements of the water at this depth was 244 °F (118 °C), the same as was measured in 1942. The video probes were lowered to a maximum depth of 42 feet (13 m) to observe the conduit formation and the processes that took place in the conduit. Some of the processes observed include fog formation from the interaction of cool air from above mixing with heated air from below, the recharge processes of water entering into the conduit and expanding from below, and entry of superheated steam measuring as high as 265 °F (129 °C) into the conduit.

Old Faithful Geyser is one of the main sights visitors want to experience in Yellowstone National Park. This popular geyser is located in the Upper Geyser Basin near the Old Faithful Inn at an elevation of 7,340 feet (2,240 m). Eruption frequency is approximately every 45 to 125 minutes and lasts anywhere from 3 minutes to 10 minutes and discharges 3,700 US gallons (14,000 L) to 8,400 US gallons (32,000 L).

Visiting in winter can be done via snowmobile or snow coach. The Old Faithful Visitor Center has information, books, and gifts about Yellowstone Park.