Visit Historic Old Faithful Inn
Yellowstone National Park's Old Faithful Inn provides much more than lodging in the world's first national park. They provide an Authentic Western Lodging Experience while on your Yellowstone vacation.Its awe-inspiring size can be seen from many points throughout the Upper Geyser Basin, which is home to the largest single concentration of geysers in the world. Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park's most famous and predictable geyser, can be seen erupting every 1-2 hours from the Inn.
To reserve a room at this popular Yellowstone Park hotel, call way in advance of your travels or choose to have your Yellowstone vacation during the shoulder season (spring or fall). To check on room availability, go to TravelYellowstone.com, the website for Xanterra Parks & Resorts for Yellowstone National Park Lodges, the hotel concessionaire for Yellowstone Park, or call 307-344-7311.
The 10,000-foot peaks just beyond Yellowstone's high volcanic plateau inspired architect Robert Reamer to match their majesty with this massive hostelry. Seven stories high, the Inn's predominant feature is its steeply pitched, gabled and cedar shingled roof that reaches from up high, down to the top of the second floor. Reminiscent of a plains skin tepee, the expansive roof communicates to visitors a profound sense of shelter.
As described in Old Faithful Inn: Crown Jewel of National Park Lodges Old Faithful Inn, written by Jeff Henry and Karen Wildung-Reinhart, the historic hotel serves as a bridge between the worlds of wilderness and civilization, offering comfort in the midst of the rugged unpredictable world of geysers, hot springs and wild beasts. An early day visitor wrote of the veranda's view: "You see before you, both 'Hell' and 'Heaven,' [and] for once you can have your choice."
In Yellowstone National Park, elk, bison, coyotes and other animals roam at will throughout the Upper Geyser Basin, attracted by the year-round foods available because of its ongoing warmth. While at Old Faithful and from a safe distance, visitors can experience wildlife from boardwalks or from the comfort of the Inn itself. Like a sentinel guarding the valley below, the grand old hotel stands watch over Mother Nature's wild, weird and wonderful.
Walk beneath the porte-cochere - the original stage way - and imagine wealthy customers gingerly disembarking from their horse-drawn buggies or stagecoaches dressed in clothes of the early 1900s. Beneath lengthy linen "dusters"(coats rented to protect their fine clothing from fine dust kicked up by horses, wheels and wind), women wore starched white blouses adorned with brooches, long skirts, hats and gloves, while men donned hats and handsome three-piece suits complete with pocket watches.
Many of these tired, dusty folks were accustomed to fine hotels of the east and were no doubt ready for a little pampering. Their journey to the world's first national park was often not easy or convenient. Early roads were atrocious: steep grades were par, and roads were deeply rutted and sported occasional tree stumps. Water was sprinkled on the roads to keep them "in good order and free from dust." The Old Faithful Inn was a welcome diversion from their travels.
Ornamental wrought-iron lamps suspended from the ceiling of the porte cochere cheerfully illuminated the Old Faithful Inn entrance in 1904 and still do today. Their glow must have been a welcome sight to weary travelers, hinting at warmth and comfort to be found inside. Experience all the history during your Yellowstone vacation.
