One of the best days in Park City

Each year Park City really goes all out for the 4th of July. During the summer the town returns to its population of about 8,000 locals (versus a peak of over 40,000 at Sundance). It seems like everyone comes out for the parade, which starts about 11:00 with a flyover of four F16 jets. To get a primo seat, right along the street on the shady side, you need to go down before 8:00 and leave your lawn chairs. It is nice to know that they won't get moved or stolen. They simply await your return.



The parade is what you would expect from a small town. Not quite the Rose Bowl. Lots of decorated cars. Some fire trucks and police vehicles. Jugglers. Trailers being pulled that are loaded down with people supporting some cause or another. Of course, in Park City there tends to be a lot of dogs on the floats as well.



I guess this little horse was in training for future work. He was one of my favorites.

Julie and I volunteered for "traffic control". That amounted to making sure the crowd didn't run out in the street during the parade. Since the crowd was so well behaved, it really meant watching the parade in a red volunteer t-shirt. We got a free meal and free beer for our efforts.

After the parade, there is a big music festival in the park. Adjacent is a series of rugby games. It was a gorgeous, sunny day.

Around 7:00 we headed for a neighbors house with about 10 other people. After a nice dinner, we walked up to the local water tower to watch the fireworks. The water tower is mostly buried and flat on top, so it is easy to get to and to set up chairs on. It is high on a hill and has a great view of Park City.



This was my first real effort to photograph fireworks. In hindsight, the water tower is a great place to watch from, but too far away and too high for great photos.



This is a picture of the fireworks launching from the base of Park City Mountain Resort.



After the fireworks were over, I wandered to a different point on the tower and started taking long exposure pictures of downtown Park City. I like how the car headlights generate the light streams. I want to head back to the water tower on a busy traffic night and try this again.



Once leaving the water tower, we went to another neighbor's house. Eventually we headed home, ending a long, wonderful day.