If you are visiting Yellowstone National Park, you should definitely visit (or maybe even stay at) the Old Faithful Inn which overlooks the famous Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone. This hotel is a national treasure and the largest log hotel in the world. The Old Faithful Lodge was the prototype for all other national park lodges.
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The Old Faithful Inn History
The Old House section of the Old Faithful Inn was finished in 1905 by Robert Reamer, an architect with the Yellowstone Park Company. Reamer’s design became the standard for U.S. National Park architecture. In fact, the style came to be called “National Park Rustic.” Intentionally asymmetric, Reamer made the Inn from log and stone and designed to harmonise with the landscape.
Reamer and his team collected the materials for building the Old House from the area surrounding the hotel. This ethos reflects the Arts & Crafts tradition in architecture which emphasised handcrafted work and locally sourced materials. It’s all pretty impressive especially considering Reamer was only 29 years old when he built this Inn. Moreover, Reamer was a self-taught architect so everything you see he learned on the job.
The Old Faithful Inn overlooks Old Faithful Geyser and is a national treasure.
I absolutely loved the beauty of the staircase rails made with naturally-occurring timber shapes. Reamer and his team would painstakingly search the local area for the right pairings of logs to create a primitive yet sophisticated look.
The architect and his team found all of the logs in nature and painstakingly matched them to each other.
The bannisters are found wood polished to a sheen.
The lobby of the Old Faithful Lodge is spectacular with its massive three-story ceiling. There is a 500 ton giant volcanic stone fireplace with a large wood and iron clock above it. The lobby has 2 sets of galleried landings going around it. In the middle there is a ‘crow’s nest’ where in former times musicians would play for the audience gathered below.
The entire inn is made from lumber found in the nearby area.
Old Faithful Inn Accommodation
When it was first finished, this hotel was considered luxury accommodation catering to the rich and famous. Several Presidents have stayed at the Inn including both Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was one of the first hotels in the USA to use electricity for lighting.
The ceiling timbers are likewise polished to a gleam.
Dormer windows let in light into the cavernous interior.
A stay at the Old Faithful Inn gives you front row viewing seats of the Old Faithful Geyser which is considered one of the most predictable geothermal phenomenons in the world. Erupting about every 90 minutes, it is not the largest or the most impressive geyser in Yellowstone National Park but definitely the most consistent. The eruptions last about 5 minutes and on average the boiling water shoots up about 145 feet.
The terrace area overlooks the geyser fields.
Details:
The Old Faithful Inn is open from May through October. You need to book well in advance if you are considering staying at the Old Faithful Lodge because it is the most requested accommodation at Yellowstone.
Be forewarned, there’s no insulation and so expect noise and cold. In addition, there is also no air-conditioning, television or WiFi. Some of the cheaper rooms also have the old-fashioned shared bathroom situation as well.
Even if you are not staying at the hotel, there are free daily tours of the hotel by its staff. I found the one hour tour really fascinating and a great explanation of the history of the Old Faithful Inn
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The Old Faithful Inn is the largest Log Hotel in the world.
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