Reaching Old Faithful in a Yellowstone winter by snowcoach
In summer you can park beside Old Faithful. In winter the roads to it are groomed snow and closed to cars, so most visitors arrive by snowcoach. Three of the tours we compare make that run. One comes up from the south and two from the west, and each times its stop to the next eruption.
Why only a snowcoach gets you there
From early November most of Yellowstone's roads close to cars. From about mid-December to mid-March the interior roads are groomed for oversnow travel. Only snowcoaches and snowmobiles with a guide may use them then.
Old Faithful sits in the middle of that closed network, so there is no driving yourself. The one road open to cars all year runs across the north of the park and never comes near the geyser basins.
That leaves two approaches on the tours we compare, from Jackson in the south and from West Yellowstone in the west. Our page on what a snowcoach is, and how it rides covers the vehicles themselves.
From the south, a long day out of Jackson
Scenic Safaris' snowcoach tour from Jackson Hole, from ~$550, is the only snowcoach day trip listed on our partner sites. Plan for a pickup at about 6 am in Jackson or Teton Village, and a hot breakfast is part of the day.
The route enters by the South Entrance, and the listing names these stops.
- Moose Falls, a short first stop near the entrance
- West Thumb Geyser Basin, with Thumb Paint Pots, Fishing Cone and Abyss Pool on the shore of Yellowstone Lake
- Old Faithful, about 2 hours with lunch
- Fountain Paint Pot, about 1 hour among bubbling mud and steam vents
The day lasts about 12 hours. Reviewers rate it 4.8 from 220+ reviews, and 94% recommend it.
The catches come from the booking side. It sells on Viator only and cannot be refunded, and your snowcoach seat is not confirmed until payment goes through.
When we compared tours it showed "not bookable for now", which is common for seasonal trips before the winter dates open.
The snowcoach day from Jackson
Scenic Safaris covers West Thumb, two hours at Old Faithful with lunch and Fountain Paint Pot in about 12 hours, from ~$550. The price includes breakfast and park fees. It may show as unavailable until winter dates open, and it cannot be refunded.
From the west, along the Madison River
West Yellowstone, Montana, sits at the West Entrance, about 30 miles (48 km) of snow road from the geyser. Two of our multi-day tours spend a full snowcoach day here.
Day three of BrushBuck Wildlife Tours' four days from Jackson, from ~$2,089 follows the Madison River to Fountain Paint Pot in the Lower Geyser Basin, then on to Old Faithful for an eruption.
Horizon Travel Team's Salt Lake City trip, from ~$2,249, uses a heated snowcoach on day two and adds Madison Junction and Black Sand Basin. It times the Old Faithful stop to the predicted eruption.
Lunch is a boxed one near the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, and it must be ordered 48 hours ahead. A short snowshoe walk is offered when conditions allow. Horizon is still unreviewed and runs only with four guests or more.
The western run is shorter, so more of the day goes to geysers and less to the road. The trade is the travel to West Yellowstone itself, which in winter means driving around the park through Idaho.
Multi-day winter tours with a snowcoach day walks through both trips day by day.
The eruption in deep cold
Old Faithful erupts roughly every hour to two hours, and BrushBuck's listing puts the gap at 44 minutes to two hours in recent decades. Each eruption lasts about 1.5–5 minutes and often reaches 100–180 feet (30–55 m).
The park posts predicted times, which is how the tours plan their stop. A prediction can still be off by several minutes either way.
Winter changes what you see.
In air well below freezing, the hot water throws up a steam cloud far larger than in summer. On a still morning it can hang over the basin long after the water falls, while on a windy day the plume blows sideways and can hide the column.
Daytime highs in the park are often 0–20 °F (−18 to −7 °C), and you may wait in the open for twenty minutes or more. Dress for standing still.
Around the geyser
Old Faithful is one feature of the Upper Geyser Basin, the densest cluster of geysers in a park that holds about half of the world's active ones. With a long stop, you can follow the boardwalks past other hot springs and smaller geysers steaming in the snow.
Those boardwalks are often icy, and traction cleats help a lot; what to wear on a Yellowstone winter tour lists them with the rest of the kit.
In winter the Old Faithful Snow Lodge stays open, which gives the tours a warm place for lunch and a restroom stop.
Stay on the boardwalks at all times, since the crust around thermal features can be thin. Give any bison wandering the basin plenty of room.
If Old Faithful is not the goal
Some winter visitors care more about animals than geysers.
Good Trip Adventures' private winter day, from ~$973, heads north to Mammoth Hot Springs and Lamar Valley with a picnic lunch. Its catch is that it never goes to Old Faithful, and the price is per person for a private group.
For a longer look, Nomad Unlimited Adventure, from ~$2,780, spends five days on Yellowstone and Grand Teton from a Salt Lake City start, but the listing has only two reviews and says little about the route.
The northern range by road is covered in our page on winter wildlife. Once tips and fees are in, what a Yellowstone snowcoach tour costs adds up the geyser trips, and when the snowcoach season runs gives the weeks when the snow roads are open.
The falls are another matter, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in winter explains why no tour here reaches them.