Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s Webcam at Yellowstone Lake
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 remains white even 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.
Old Faithful Geyser
Old Faithful, named by members of the 1870 Washburn Expedition, was once called “Eternity’s 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 to eat, take a tour, interact with exhibits, or watch the visitor center film based on Old Faithful’s next eruption.
Mammoth Hot Springs — Travertine Terraces and Parade Ground
Yellowstone is a place of change, and this view highlights a place where change is constant and evident—the 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 chalky white rock of the terraces.In the foreground are the parade grounds for historic Fort Yellowstone—the focal point of daily life at the fort. Each day began early with a bugler sounding Reveille. Another bugle call brought horse-mounted soldiers trotting onto the field for the flag-raising. Assignments were then announced. Troops either headed out to patrol the Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces and other nearby attractions, or remained at the fort to care for the horses. At dusk, the bugler called all troopers back to the grounds for the lowering of the flag, and the day was concluded with a cannon firing from the top of Capitol Hill. Taps was played as lights winked out and quiet settled over the fort.
Webcam Questions and Answers
Live-stream Webcam
The live-stream webcam is attached to the northeast flagpole on the top of the Old Faithful Inn.
That functionality is not available on this webcam.
Our bandwidth capacity on the available T1 line restricts the resolution we can stream.
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 and white night 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 everything white or grey.
Park staff and volunteers control the camera.
Not at this time.
Static Webcams
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.
If you are getting a gray or black rectangle instead of a picture it could mean that you are not visiting during daylight hours. There are no artificial lights in front of the webcams.
