The most famous of all geysers is Old Faithful. It is everything you would expect to see in a geyser. Located in Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful has the showman’s touch. With a rumbling fanfare and roll of drums beneath the thin shell of the earth, Old Faithful goes into action. Then a hissing, boiling pillar of water spurts into the air. Rapidly it gains momentum until it reaches a height of 140 feet or more.
For four minutes it continues to play, and then gradually dies away. Tiny wisps of steam linger a moment, and then disappear. Old Faithful puts on its show within a few minutes of a specified time. The average interval between eruptions is 65 minutes.
It is staggering to conceive just how much water Old Faithful hurls skyward during each of its extraordinary performances. It has been estimated, however, that in a single day this geyser discharges approximately 250,000 gallons of water.
To see Yellowstone's Old Faithful at night is, perhaps, the most wondrous sight of all. A giant searchlight is thrown upon its towering plume, and the steaming column of water, thus caught in the vivid, white light, presents a spectacle which becomes an everlasting memory of your trip to Yellowstone.