Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin Live-stream Webcam
Thanks to volunteers, this webcam provides a streaming view of Old Faithful Geyser and other happenings around the Upper Geyser Basinone of the most unique and dynamic places on earth with about 500 active geysers

This webcam is on the park's North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana. It shows current conditions at the entrance with Roosevelt Arch in the background

The arch became known as Roosevelt Arch after President Theodore Roosevelt, who was vacationing in the park, spoke at the ceremony to lay the cornerstone in 1903. The arch is inscribed with a phrase from the legislation establishing Yellowstone National Park: "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people."
Yellowstone is a place of change, and this view highlights a place where change is constant and evidentthe travertine terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. Terraces form when water rises through limestone, which then allows the water to carry high amounts of dissolved calcium carbonate. At the surface, carbon dioxide is released and the calcium carbonate is deposited, forming travertine, the chalkyrock of the terraces. In the foreground are the parade grounds for historic Fort Yellowstonethe focal point of daily life at the fort

At 10,219 feet, Mount Washburn towers above Dunraven Pass between Tower Junction andVillage. A fire lookout stationed at the summit provides a popular destination for day hikers, as well as housing for an employee who watches for and tracks fires throughout the summer. This webcam is located inside the living quarters on the top floor and looks out to the northeast

This webcam atop Mount Washburn captures a south-facing view of the north-central part of the park. During summer, the webcam is often re-positioned by the fire lookout, and smoke from wildfires burning in the park may be visible

Old Faithful, named by members of the 1870 Washburn Expedition, was once called Eternitys Timepiece because of the regularity of its eruptions. Despite the myth, this geyser has never erupted at exact hourly intervals, nor is it the largest or most regular geyser in Yellowstone. It does, however, erupt more frequently than any other of the large geysers


This view of the Old Faithful Geyser is captured from a webcam inside the visitor education center. At this location, time is not measured by a clock, but by this geyser. Visitors make decisions on when totake a tour, interact with exhibits, or watch the visitor center film based on Old Faithful's next eruption

The camera view is south-southeast over Yellowstone Lake from the cell phone tower near Fishing Bridge. Stevenson Island is visible within the lake on the right. The view extends down the Southeast Arm between the Promontory (low ridge rising from the lake) and the eastern shore. Above the shore, the acid-bleached Brimstone Basin remainseven when the snows have melted. The Absaroka Mountains in the background are composed of approximately 50-million-year old volcanic rocks that long precede the current volcanic activity at Yellowstone, which started about 2.2 million years ago

The webcam has been set to operate in color mode as long as possible, even into low light conditions. When there is still enough light in the camera's view, even at night, it will continue operating in color view. When the light drops too low, then the infrared cutoff filter automatically engages and the camera switches to black andnight mode

There are a couple possibilities here. On many winter days the steam from the geysers is held near the surface causing a foggy condition that can block the view of the camera completely at times. Sometimes there is a snow storm that makes everythingor grey

This occurs when the park loses FTP Internet access to upload a picture to our server. Sometime it's a webcam issue when it loses power from a power outage. Try clearing your browser's cache and press the reload (refresh) button. If that does not work, please come back to visit later. Please know that when this incident happens or any webcam goes down, we work quickly to resolve the issue

Your browser didn't update the photo because it was not the active window. When you first come back to a webcam after being away, press the reload (refresh) button to see the latest image. That will get the ball rolling once again.