What you can see on the Yellowstone cams
The cams watch Black Diamond Pool in Biscuit Basin, where a hydrothermal explosion threw rocks and mud across the boardwalk on 23 July 2024, and Yellowstone Lake, much of which lies inside the caldera. The lake floor hides hydrothermal vents and some of the largest explosion craters in the park.
Steam rising over Biscuit Basin
The camera looks across Black Diamond Pool from close to its rim, in Biscuit Basin, one of the geyser fields along the Firehole River. The pool sits in a bowl of pale sinter, the mineral crust that hot water leaves behind as it cools. On cold mornings it vanishes under a thick column of steam drifting across the frame; by midday the water and its scalloped edges show clearly, with a wooded ridge closing the view.
It is the most changeable of the Yellowstone views: how much steam there is says as much about the air temperature as about the pool.
Yellowstone Lake inside the caldera
From high above the forest, the camera looks out over the lodgepole pines to Yellowstone Lake, with the Absaroka Range along the far shore and a small wooded island out on the water. The lake fills part of the caldera left by the last great eruption, about 631,000 years ago, and hot springs and vents dot parts of its floor.
The camera faces the morning sun, which flares across the picture early in the day; the view is clearest in the afternoon, with the light behind it.
Is Yellowstone going to erupt?
Not any time soon, according to the observatory. The magma body beneath the caldera is mostly solid, and the ground rises and falls by a few centimetres a year as fluids move. A large eruption would be preceded by years of unmistakable signs. Hydrothermal explosions like the one at Biscuit Basin are far more likely, and happen somewhere in the park every year or two, usually in remote places.
When to watch Yellowstone
Steam is most visible on cold mornings, when it condenses in the chilly air; in winter the hydrothermal areas are wrapped in fog. Summer afternoons often bring thunderstorms. Yellowstone is on Mountain Time, seven hours behind UTC in winter and six in summer.
Around Biscuit Basin
Biscuit Basin lies about 3 km (2 mi) north of Old Faithful, in the Upper Geyser Basin, the largest concentration of geysers in the world. A little further north, Grand Prismatic Spring in Midway Geyser Basin is the park’s largest hot spring. On the shore of Yellowstone Lake, West Thumb Geyser Basin has hot springs that bubble up right at the water’s edge.
Visiting Yellowstone
Biscuit Basin is on the road between Old Faithful and Madison, in the park’s Upper Geyser Basin area. Parts of the boardwalk have been closed since the 2024 explosion, so check the park’s updates before going.
