Goodbye Yellowstone! Hello San Francisco! - Day 8 & 9

Hey everyone! After a restful night's sleep at the Yellowstone Village Inn and Suites and a great shiner, we headed back into Yellowstone National Park (we were a little sad that our entrance was under construction because it looks amazing). 

On our way into the park we drove by a cool sign that said we were at the 45th parallel.

Our main stop today was the Mammoth Hot Springs.  They weren't kidding about being Mammoth either! 

Look at these things!

There were lots of cool looking deposits left over from the springs. Some of the springs were dormant or even fully finished.  The landscape of this area is in constant flux because of this.  Also, the chemical make-up of the water made it really smelly. Yuck!

Next, we hit the road for a long day of driving! So we waived goodbye to Wyoming and Montana and pushed into Idaho.

After a few hours of driving we drove over the Snake River. We both did a double take and Kim spun the car around because of the crazy gorge that the river had cut into the landscape, which had returned to flatland.

We were so astonished that we followed some signs down into the gorge where we got to see the hydroelectric dam and power station. It was pretty amazing.

After a short stop, it was back to the road and before we knew it we were crossing over into Nevada. The first place in Nevada was called Jackpot; of course we had to pull over and try for a jackpot in Jackpot!  Too bad we lost our $1.

Back on the road, we saw the most amazing sky's ever. We even saw a rainstorm from a distance with a rainbow!

We finally pulled in to Elko for the night and got comfy for the evening. 

The next morning we re packed the car and hit the road again! This time we were California or Bust!
Northern Nevada is beautiful but it begins to get monotonous so we don't have many pictures from this day.  This tunnel under the mountain was cool though. 

After almost two straight days of driving the bugs were getting thick so I had to get the window spotless for our entrance into California.

We made a pit stop at a beautiful overlook near the Tahoe area to switch up driving.

Shortly after we pulled up to Kim's cousin Kim's house. (That's right, Kim has a cousin named Kim).

They have an amazing back yard area. 

They had an amazing dinner made for us! After we ate we spent some good quality time getting to know Kim and Lisa. We feel very welcome!  

-Paul and Kim