#BucketList August 22

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Last year in August I participated in 30-Day Daily Prompt Coach4aday Challenge. On August 21, 2021, I did a post on particular place on my BUCKET LIST. That was Yellowstone National Park. Well tonight I fly west with my wife to make that become a reality.

A BUCKET LIST records the number of experiences or achievements that someone hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime. The challenge last year was to focus on an experiences or place to visit.

Why Yellowstone

Part of our 12-day trip will take us to Yellowstone. It is a National Park that I heard about as a small boy from my dad. Prior to him being deployed to India during WWII he got to experience Yellowstone in September 1941 and always raved about the experience.

My dad F. D. Kenney was training at Fort Douglas Utah with the Army Air Corp and 6 weeks before they were to deploy out to the Pacific Theater, they were issued leave. My dad and his friends decided to go to Yellowstone and fish. On November 30, 1941, they would leave Pearl Harbor on troop transit ship a week before the Japanese attacked. When they left, he was just 22 years old. He spent 30 months overseas in Australia and Karachi India.

My turn

Today our trip will begin in Utah and afford us time to visit Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

Yellowstone was North America’s first national park. On March 1, 1872, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, signed the bill to protect this important land. When the park was established, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana were not yet states.

Yellowstone is full of wildlife. Just look at what lives at the park.

67 species of mammals, including: seven species of native ungulates (such as elk, bison, deer, and antelope) and two species of bears, as well as:

• 285 species of birds
• 16 species of fish
• 5 species of amphibians
• 6 species of reptiles

The park contains Yellowstone Lake, the largest highest elevation lake in North America along with 290 known waterfalls. We will be staying four nights on the shores of Yellowstone Lake and hiking to a number of those waterfalls.

Excited to not only get to visit Yellowstone but the Grand Tetons also. Our trip will also include touring a number of colleges and universities and catching up with friends who have ties to UNC Pembroke.