It’s all fun and games and until someone burns down your city. The 4th of July is going to be decidedly less noisy this year for residents of Park City, and the city council took action on their concerns about the similarities of their city with Colorado Springs. Last year hundreds of homes were consumed by wildfires, and the landscape is not too different from Park City’s, council members say, due to the steep slopes and abundance of dry fuels.

There haven’t been any major wildfires this season, yet, but residents have been urged to remain on the alert and to use caution this summer to protect their city.

I recently went on an Alaskan cruise. We embarked from Seattle on an uncharacteristically sunny day in May and being a newbie to travel of any variety, I was immediately impressed with the beauty present in Washington. Everything was so picturesque and cozy. I loved it. And then we were off to Alaska.

I’m originally from Utah, nestled at the base of what has been deemed as one of the world’s most majestic mountains, Mount Timpanogos. As started becoming acquainted with people on the ship and introducing ourselves as Utahns, the main reaction we’d receive was “Utah is so beautiful!” I began to feel pretty spoiled, largely because I’ve only hiked Timp a few times, I’ve never seen the arches or been to Zions, or even attended the Sundance Film Festival. And here I was ready to tour Alaska rather than the natural wonders at my doorstep.

As we began to make our stops, something else dawned on me: Alaska is a lot like Utah, except bigger. I felt even more spoiled, thinking, “Yeah, I’ve seen all this, minus the bears.” But even Utah has bears, just a different shade of deadly. Alaska’s wildlife definitely owns Utah’s in terms of deadliness. But overall, I was inspired to take better advantage of Utah as a tourist destination than I’d ever thought to previously.