Going to Waterton to avoid the 4th

Enjoying the 4th of July Canadian-style in Waterton Lakes National Park

We had a wonderful supper at the Prince of Wales

Lupine and Sticky Geranium filled in the fields in front of Crandell Mountain

Waterton has a gadget at trailheads to scrape noxious weeds from your boots

Wild Day Lilies along the Wishbone Trail

It is becoming routine to get out of Great Falls for the 4th of July to avoid the firecrackers and cherry bombs that shake our neighborhood with noise.
It was especially sweet to get out of the country this year to avoid President Trump's military show in Washington, D.C.
We took off for Waterton National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Glacier's sister park, for the 4th and 5th, and had quiet evenings, relief from Trump and a wonderfully uncrowded world-class park to enjoy.
Waterton's visitation is obviously down because much of the park is off-limits since the 2017 Kenow Fire ravaged it, even destroying the visitor's center and making most trails too clogged with deadfall to hike comfortably.
We found lodging easily and good prices and near-empty restaurants and shops, although just several days earlier on Canada Days (July 1) we were told the town was hopping.
There's construction everywhere.
A new Kilmorey Lodge is being rebuilt on the site where it had been destroyed by fire. It will open next summer.
The new visitor's center is a couple of blocks north of the main street, an enormous facility that takes up several square blocks, and several old cabins have been knocked down along the lake, making way for new starter-mansions.  It is to open the summer of 2021.
The Bertha Lake and east shore trails are open, but the Cameron Lake and Red Rocks roads were closed while we were there.  You could walk them, though, and Red Rocks is supposed to be open to driving any day.
That's driving some Canadian traffic to Many Glacier in the U.S., and those trails are clogged and expected to be even more congested later in the summer.  At least the Park Service is putting up a sign near the Babb turnoff to let folks know if there are any parking spots in Many, so they don't make that long drive just to be caught in a traffic jam or turned around.
The Park Service is going to have to do something about the Many congestion soon.
We split our two nights between a bed and breakfast in Mountain View Alberta about 10 miles from Waterton the first night and then the Crandall Inn inside the park the second night.
There's a lot of country to explore in Waterton, even with the closed trails on the east side of the park.  We found the Wishbone Trail on the west side of Waterton Lake a very pleasant, if unchallenging, but scenic trail to hike.  It goes through a marsh and aspen groves and eventually hooks up to climbing routes of both Vimy and Sofa mountains.
We spent a morning reveling in the gorgeous wildflower blooms in the open grass country.  We were a little later than last year but enjoyed large patches of lupine.
While there are still boat rides on Waterton, they no longer let riders off at Goat Haunt because of last year's fire in the area.  But, you can arrange a boat trip to the exciting Crypt Lake trail.
And....there's always strolling along Waterton Lake in town or making a loop of it by taking in Crandall Falls.
Even without some of the legendary hikes off limits (Bear Hump, Akamina, Cameron Lake, Carthew-Alderson, Blakiston Peak, Lineham Ridge) you can choose to relax as we did this 4th.