Seeing Old Faithful in winter is a bucket-list moment for many. Snow-covered boardwalks. Steam rising into icy air. Fewer people and absolute quiet between eruptions.

But getting to Old Faithful in winter comes with one big catch: you can’t just drive there.

While that’s part of the magic of the season, it also makes it harder to witness an eruption (and even more special when you do). We learned that lesson the hard way during our recent Christmas trip to Yellowstone. What started as a carefully planned snowcoach surprise for Jon’s parents turned into a crash course in how winter transportation inside the park really works.

If you’re wondering, can you drive to Old Faithful in the winter? How does the snowcoach to Old Faithful work? How do you reach the Old Faithful Snow Lodge? Here’s everything we learned, plus a realistic look at how winter plans can change (and how to pivot if they do).

This guide focuses specifically on how to reach and experience Old Faithful in winter. For a full breakdown of what parts of Yellowstone are open, where to stay, and what else you can do in the park, see our Yellowstone in Winter planning guide.

man walking snow-covered trails lined by pine trees

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Planning a Yellowstone vacation? Don’t miss our All-Seasons Yellowstone Travel Guide!

Can you drive to Old Faithful in the winter?

Short answer: No.

In winter, most Yellowstone roads are closed to regular vehicles, including the road to Old Faithful.

The only road that’s open for self-driving during winter months is the route from Yellowstone’s North Entrance (Gardiner, MT) to Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance (Cooke City, MT). Everything else, including Old Faithful, is accessible only by snowcoach or snowmobile.

So if you’re Googling “can you drive to Old Faithful in the winter” and hoping for a loophole, unfortunately… there isn’t one. But don’t worry! This is part of what makes visiting Yellowstone in the winter such a special and unique experience.

Because while you can’t drive to Old Faithful, there’s still a way to get there. Interior roads are open for over-snow travel, such as snowcoaches or snowmobiles.

How to get to Old Faithful in the winter

There are three main ways to reach Old Faithful in winter:

Snowcoach tour
Snowmobile (tour or self-driving, if you have a permit)
Snowcoach transportation to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge

For those staying in West Yellowstone, both snowcoach and snowmobile tours run from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful.

For those staying in Gardiner, Yellowstone Vacations runs snowcoach tours to Old Faithful that depart directly from town. Alternatively, you can drive about ten minutes through the park to Mammoth Hot Springs. There, you’ll find snowcoach tours to Old Faithful, as well as snowcoach transportation to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. There are currently no snowmobile tours out of Gardiner, MT.

Snowcoach Tours vs Snowcoach Transportation

Snowcoach tours in Yellowstone are typically full-day or half-day guided tours on a yellow shuttle bus with big snow tires. Most tours are headed to a main destination, such as Old Faithful or Canyon Village, with stops along the way for wildlife and scenery.

You can book snowcoach tours that depart from Gardiner (Yellowstone’s North Entrance) or West Yellowstone (Yellowstone’s West Entrance). Tours also run from Yellowstone’s two winter lodges, Old Faithful Snow Lodge and Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.

But there’s a third option for getting to Old Faithful that’s less talked about: snowcoach transportation.

Snowcoach transportation is designed primarily for guests staying overnight at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Shuttles run daily between the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, and are actually the only way to reach the Snow Lodge in the winter.

Here’s why this is helpful for those hoping to see Old Faithful erupt in the winter: Snowcoach transportation can double as a snowcoach tour to Old Faithful if you book it round-trip the same day. That’s exactly what we ended up doing after our original snowcoach tour was cancelled.

Snowcoach Transportation to Old Faithful

Let me give you some extra context.

Our first winter trip to Yellowstone was in February 2023. We did as much as we could: snowcoach tour to Old Faithful, snowmobile tour to Artist Point and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Wolf & Grizzly Discovery Center, wolf watching in Lamar Valley, wildlife watching along Yellowstone’s Northern Range, soaking in Yellowstone Hot Springs, and driving every road open for self-driving in the winter.

Every piece of that trip left a mark, but the snowcoach tour to Old Faithful stood out above everything. Our guide was phenomenal and incredibly knowledgeable. We got to see geyser basins, and an Old Faithful eruption, and tons of wildlife, and get caught in a bison jam, and photograph frozen waterfalls, and see much, much more than we expected.

We had such a great time on our snowcoach tour to Old Faithful that it became the one thing we recommended more than almost anything else: If you’re going to visit Yellowstone in the winter, don’t miss the snowcoach tour to Old Faithful.

So of course, when we were headed back to Yellowstone for Christmas with Jon’s parents, we had to surprise them with a snowcoach tour for themselves.

Unfortunately, even with decent road conditions on the Northern Range, less snow and more ice than usual resulted in interior road closures. Our snowcoach tour was canceled.

Since park officials were closing roads on a day-by-day basis, we learned our tour was canceled the day before, around 3 p.m. We had booked through Yellowstone Vacations in Gardiner, but unfortunately, there wasn’t availability to rebook for another day we were in town.

Not willing to give up just yet, I went to the Yellowstone National Park Lodges website to check their availability.

There weren’t any tours still available for the days we were in town, but there were seats for snowcoach transportation from Mammoth to Old Faithful. This is how those staying overnight at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge get to their hotel. On check-in day, you board a snowcoach at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel with your luggage. You get dropped off a few hours later at Old Faithful Snow Lodge. On check-out day, you board a return shuttle from Old Faithful back to Mammoth.

Since there were seats available on shuttles to and from Old Faithful on the same day, we decided to test a theory.

Can Snowcoach Transportation Work as a Day Trip?

Yes, with some caveats.

We booked:

7:45 a.m. departure from Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel
1:45 p.m. return from Old Faithful Snow Lodge
Date: December 30

That gave us a scenic snowcoach ride through Yellowstone’s interior, wildlife and geothermal stops along the way, arrival at Old Faithful around noon, about 90 minutes to explore the area and (hopefully) catch an eruption, and a second snowcoach ride back with different stops.

While it’s not a guided tour in the traditional sense, snowcoach transportation still includes:

Scenic winter landscapes that you cannot access any other way
Wildlife sightings
Geyser basins and thermal features along the route
Stops for photos and bathroom breaks

Visiting the Old Faithful Snow Lodge in Winter

The Old Faithful Snow Lodge is one of only two hotels that are open in Yellowstone in winter, usually opening for the season around mid-December and closing in early March. Because you only arrive here by over-snow travel, the lodge feels like a cozy outpost in the middle of nowhere. It’s the most remote winter experience you can get in the park.

Even if you’re not staying overnight, you can still warm up inside, use restrooms, grab food and drinks, walk the snow-covered boardwalks of the Upper Geyser Basin, and watch Old Faithful erupt with far fewer people around.

For winter visitors, this is one of the most special places in all of Yellowstone. Read more about the different places you can stay when visiting Yellowstone in the winter.

Note: While most people book snowcoach transportation to get here, those with permits can travel by private snowmobile.

Important Winter Travel Realities (Read This)

Winter access to Old Faithful comes with a big asterisk. If the National Park Service closes interior roads in Yellowstone, your tour may be canceled. Cancellations often happen the afternoon before (we were notified around 3 p.m.).

Snowcoach transportation is also affected by road closures, and afternoon departures often get prioritized for overnight lodge guests. Round-trip day travelers are the first to be shifted or canceled if conditions are poor.

There are a handful of people who successfully do snowcoach transportation as a round trip, but it’s never guaranteed. The same applies to traditional snow coach tours: Less snow or more ice than usual can result in closures and cancellations. During busy weeks, there may not be availability to rebook for another day, and your tour will be canceled with a full refund.

For the best chance of seeing Old Faithful in winter, here’s what we recommend:

A full snowcoach tour (from a concessionaire like Yellowstone Vacations) is better than snowcoach transportation, but snowcoach transportation is also an option and often has more last-minute availability than traditional snowcoach tours
Staying overnight at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge offers the most time at Old Faithful and the best chance of seeing an eruption when traveling earlier in the winter season
Visiting later in the winter season (January and February) is usually more reliable than earlier (more snow = better conditions)
Always build backup plans into your winter itinerary in case of cancellations

Flexibility is one of the reasons we love staying at least a few nights in Gardiner in winter. When interior tours cancel or shift, you can still drive the Northern Range, visit Mammoth Hot Springs, or change plans without losing a full day. It’s also where we host winter guests at our Cozy Yellowstone Compound and Yellowstone Christmas Cabin, so we see firsthand how helpful it is to have a comfortable home base when plans shift.

Is Old Faithful worth visiting in winter?

At one point, my mother-in-law said, “Are you sure you want to pay for something we can just do in the summer?”

But that’s the thing. You can drive to Old Faithful in summer. You cannot experience Yellowstone’s interior like this any other time of year.

Snowcoaches. Frozen geyser basins. Steam drifting through snow-laden air. Winter Yellowstone is a completely different park.

Seeing Old Faithful in winter takes more effort, but the payoff is huge. If you’re willing to work within Yellowstone’s winter rules and roll with last-minute changes, it’s one of the most memorable ways to experience the park.

Planning a winter Yellowstone trip?

These guides will help you put your whole trip together:

And if you want everything in one place, our All-Seasons Yellowstone Travel Guide walks you through exactly how to plan your trip, from where to stay and what’s open to wildlife routes, winter road access, and day-by-day itineraries. It’s the guide we wish we had when we planned our first winter Yellowstone trip!

How to See Old Faithful in the Winter