Yellowstone/Jackson trip - Day Three

Day three of our trip started out with a yummy breakfast of French Toast.

 This is our campsite.

 It was warm enough to still wear shorts in the morning, but we kept our jackets on for a little while.

 We traveled the Upper Loop of Yellowstone today. This is Tower Fall. 

 Anytime you see a group of cars stopped a long the side of the road, you know there is probably an animal around.  The animal is usually bison or elk, but this time, it was a Mama black bear with her cub.  People were getting really close to her, and she just ignored everyone.  We zoomed in our camera to get this picture.  We didn't want to get too close.  We were so excited to be able to see a bear.  Especially a baby bear.

 So, of course, after we saw the bear, the kids got to mark it off on their animal paper.  This is what Michelle is doing in the picture and what Luke is waving in the picture below.

 Our next stop was the petrified tree.

 This is a pronghorn we saw on our drive around Yellowstone.

 Again, there was another group of cars stopped a long side of the road, so we stopped, too.  We couldn't really see the bear because it had gone into the bushes.  But, someone pointed out to us where the bear was, so we waited.  Sure enough, he came out for a second, and we were able to snap a picture of the black bear going back into the bushes.

 Lunchtime.  Our campsite was too far away to go back and have lunch each day, so we stopped at a picnic area and roasted our hot dogs.

 When we went through Mammoth Hot Springs, there were several elk just hanging out every where.

 There was a creek nearby where we ate lunch.  The kids were dying to get in, so we let them wade for a little while.  The water was pretty chilly.

 The next few pictures are of Mammoth Hot Springs.

 While we were walking on the board walk, Heather pointed out that one of the small mountains looked like a roasted marshmallow.  It really did, but it's hard to see it in this picture.  A guy walking by heard Heather say that and commented that all Heather needed now was a graham cracker to go with her shirt (it says Hersheys) and her roasted marshmallow.  It was kind of funny.

 At one stop, Luke had to go to the bathroom.  I went back with him, while everyone else kept going.  When he was done, we were running to catch up.  He tripped and skinned his knee.  He was a good sport, but it did hurt. We doctored it up with our first aid kit.

 Again, a crowd was stopped at the side of the road.  It turns out that someone spotted this grizzly bear stalking this herd of elk.  We thought it was really cool to be able to see a grizzly bear, even if it was from far away.

 We had to use binoculars and the camera zoom lens to see the grizzly bear. 

 Dinner that night was tinfoil dinners.

 And, Smore's for dessert!