Yellowstone

The next morning after staying in the Mammoth Lodge. We head to the Mammoth Terraces. Just after leaving the Lodge we see two Elk on the right eating their breakfast. We then head into the upper terraces and view the amazing geothermal area. This is a must see spot in Yellowstone. It looks absolutely cold and barren, however, there are trees and shrubs growing in here. As we are driving through we got the opportunity to see a bear just awake wondering through. We were able to take quite a few good pictures of said bear before we got a line up of cars behind us. As we pulled away our engine scared the bear and he jutted out in front of our car and left the other would be picture takers to dislike us.
After our tour of Mammoth area we made the loop around Yellowstone. It was fascinating how different each area was. We had almost no snow on the ground near Mammoth and then down my the south entrance and by Yellowstone lake there was almost a foot of snow. We ended our time in Yellowstone by going to see Old Faithful. However, we arrived just in time to have missed the previous eruption and would have to wait 90 minutes to see the next one. So we headed to our car to get some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. Once we were done we returned to Old Faithful. Joe, Bryce, and Ryleigh headed up to get a front row seat while Blake and I hung back to get full pictures. I have to say that Old Faithful is a must see but not the most impressive thing in Yellowstone.
After the eruption we headed to the Tetons to view their impressive peaks. They were very impressive and the boys wanted to climb them. I told them that they would have to come back at another time. They are now planning a road trip with that as their first stop. The really funny thing was that the best view of the Tetons was really on the freeway leaving them. However we would have all enjoyed canoeing or kayaking on Jenny Lake next to them.
With the temperatures still cold we decided to keep driving past our stop for the night and ended up driving about five hours more that night. We made it all the way to Nebraska before calling it at night in Sydney, Nebraska. I will say though that the Days Inn that we stayed in made me wish we had either quit earlier or kept going as it smelled like a frat house. Everyone woke up with a sore throat and sneezing from the smoke. Apparently they thought that it was a good idea to put smoking rooms on the bottom floor and put non-smoking above them. Joe and the kid really enjoyed their belgium waffles though.