The Ledge in Lights

Christmas lights outline BC provincial legislature...

During the Christmas season the provincial legislature (a.k.a. The Ledge) lights up in green and red.

After the hard work is done...

Chillin' in the hot tub with some buds and brews...

... it's Miller Time!©

Crazy Horse Memorial

Faith can move -- or shape -- mountains...

We first saw South Dakota's Crazy Horse Memorial about 15 years ago. It didn't appear to have changed much since then but that's probably only due to the sheer size of the sculpture. To fully appreciate it, take a look at how small the earth moving equipment looks in the photo above.

The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) long and 563 feet (172 m) high. The arm of Crazy Horse will be 263 feet (80 m) long and the head 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high.

It will likely be decades before it's completed.

From Wikipedia:

The memorial is a non-profit undertaking, and does not accept federal or state funding. The Memorial Foundation finances the project by charging fees for its visitor centers, earning revenue from its gift shops and receiving contributions. 

Ziolkowski reportedly was offered US$10 million for the project from the federal government on two occasions, but he turned the offers down. He felt the project was more than just a mountain carving, and he feared that his plans for the broader educational and cultural goals of the memorial would be overturned by federal involvement. 

What the final sculpture will look like...

Vallarta nights

The western sky glows with the setting sun over Puerto Vallarta...

The setting sun silhouettes the palm trees that line the bay of Puerto Vallarta...

Death of a gunslinger

Photos of Wild Bill Hickok on the walls of the No 10 Saloon...

James Butler Hickok a.k.a. Wild Bill Hickok was only thirty-nine when he was shot and killed in Deadwood while playing cards in a local saloon.

His reputation as a gunslinger was embellished by penny novels of the time. They described him as having killed over 150 men when the reality is that he probably only killed about six or seven men.

The hand of cards that he supposedly was holding when he was killed has come to be known as a Dead Man's Hand... a pair of aces and a pair of eights.

He is buried in the cemetery above Deadwood.

Visitors to Deadwood can see entertaining re-enactments of the shooting at the Legendary Old Style Saloon No. 10 on Deadwood's main street.

Wild Bill's headstone above his grave overlooking Deadwood...

Welcome to Deadwood

Main Street Deadwood welcomes you... sort of.

American's wild west is very much a part of Deadwood's history. Many famous characters such as Wyatt Earp, the Sundance Kid, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok passed through Deadwood.

Saloons, casinos and tacky gift shops...

Deadwood SD

Their slogan is the real deal...

Deadwood SD was our ultimate destination during our summer road trip. We had visited the area briefly about 15 years ago and had always wanted to return.

Deadwood was originally known as Deadwood Gulch. Although I had heard the word gulch often used in western movies, I didn't know what it meant until I looked up the definition.

A gulch is defined as a narrow and steep-sided ravine marking the course of a fast stream. Although Deadwood Gulch sounds like a cooler name for a western town, it eventually came to be known more simply as Deadwood.

A small town with a big history...

Bull in a bar

Now that is a Texas longhorn!

Not far from Devils Tower in Wyoming, we discovered this Western bar that was so perfect that it could have been a movie set.

Behind the bar the wall was plastered with currency written over with notes of appreciation.

Bucks, bullets and booze... the currency of America...

¡Ay, caramba!

Do not go swimming off the docks!!

We recently returned from Puerto Vallarta where I made a surprising discovery. While waiting in the local marina for a bus ride, I glanced out over the water to see a 10-foot alligator lazily swimming among the yachts.

Locals working on the jetties didn't give it much attention, so they are obviously native to the area. We've been to Mexico numerous times and this is the first time we had ever seen one. I guess when you consider that alligators stroll the golf courses of Florida, it's not such a surprise, but it's still disturbing to see them so close to civilization.

Devils Tower

No extraterrestrials on the day that we visited...

Anyone who saw the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind back in 1977 will be familiar with Devils Tower in Wyoming.

It sticks out above the horizon like the proverbial sore thumb, but its true scale isn't apparent until you get closer. With binoculars, you'll see climbers scaling the face of the 900 foot high monument like so many ants on a hill.

Each of the green circles in the bottom photo indicates where one or more climbers were visible on the day that we were there. There was even a couple at the top.

Climbers tackle the Tower...

Beautiful deadly

Do NOT attempt to swim laps...

Yellowstone's thermal pools might look inviting with their aquamarine colour so reminiscent of tropical water, but don't be fooled.

The temperature of the water is only slightly below boiling and the water is extremely acidic. Staff are often on the lookout for people 'hot potting', i.e. illegally trying to have a soak in the pools as if they were hot tubs.

One unfortunate man from Oregon several years ago learned how deadly they could be in the final minutes of his life. He slipped and fell into the water. The high temperatures and the acidity of the water literally dissolved him before his body could be recovered. Ewww...

Hot potting... a good way to thin out the stupid ones...

Under the orange sky

A cruise ship docked at Victoria under a hazy sky...

With the onset of the rainy season, Victorians are already quickly putting the memory of last summer's hazy skies -- filled with the smoke of our second worst wildfire season on record -- behind them.

White wolf

"I can stare for a thousand years..."

I was surprised to see these all white wolves at The Grizzly Bear and Wolf Discovery Center. Every wolf I've ever seen before was always shades of white, grey and black. However, Google assures me that, yes, grey wolves can indeed be all white.

They are not to be confused with Arctic wolves which are also all white.

I also learned that if an animal such as an elk is being hunted by wolves, it stands a much better chance of survival if it stands its ground and uses its antlers for defence. Wolves prefer to run after their prey and pull it to the ground.

When they are milling around an animal which is standing its ground the pack members more often just get in each other's way.

 A post-snooze stretch...

Grisly remains

A grizzly on the go...

The Grizzly Bear and Wolf Discovery Center on the east boundary of Yellowstone Park is the only bear-safe food container certification testing facility in the United States.

Yes, that's a thing. Before any food storage container can advertise itself as bear safe, it must first be able to withstand a 90 minute full-on bear bashing. The containers are baited and scented with bear attractants and then tossed into the pen with the big bruins.

The image below shows the remains of various containers that did not pass the test.

Staff there told us that some of the smarter bears figure out how to open containers by simply manipulating the locking mechanism with their paws. Most of them though resort to the tried and true method of simply smashing the hell out of the container.

Food grade but not grizzly grade...

Get out!

The smallest one of the bunch...

Our little 15-foot trailer is frequently surrounded by much longer and luxurious motorhomes in a lot of the RV camp sites that we stay in. We joke that we must annoy our neighbours because we are bringing down the local property values.

I woke one morning to find that someone had left this dead bird on our power box. We laughingly figured that someone was leaving us a warning to take our little pop-up and get out of Dodge.

At least it wasn't a horse's head...

There's a message here... I think.

Atomic City ID

Nothing happens on Main Street of Atomic City...

Atomic City in Idaho is definitely off the grid. It's about 20 miles off the main interstate at the end of a non-descript gravel road.

I wanted to see it because I was intrigued by its retro-future name.

It's nearly a ghost town now, home to just 30 people. It features a small stock car race track which appears to be still active, but, except for a couple of grizzled old characters -- one of them sporting two artificial legs -- it seemed deserted in the middle of the day.

The only bar in town is long shuttered...

No longer serving cold ones...

The Haunting

"Whatever walked there... walked alone..."

This Halloween season Netflix has been streaming The Haunting of Hill House, a one-shot 10-part series inspired by Shirley Jackson's creepy 1959 book.

In the series, Hill House looks very similar to local landmark Hatley Castle. Hatley Castle is familiar to some movie fans as the Mutant Academy in the X-Men and Deadpool movies.

Of course, any castle has to have its share of ghosts and Hatley Castle is no exception. I spent numerous nights sleeping in the castle back in the day when it was a military academy. I had my share of creepy encounters during those nights, but only one that I would consider to be truly supernatural. One was enough...

Arco

Arco... City of Tomorrow...

Leaving behind Craters of the Moon, we were well and truly into the deserts of Idaho. We passed through the town of Arco whose claim to fame is that they were the first city to be totally lit with atomic power.

In researching Arco before we made our trip, I came across this odd X-Files-ish story on the website reddit. I'm not sure what to make of it. I can't say our experience was anything odd.

Arco... surrounded by desolation...

Beach ogre

Giving beachcombers a welcoming hand...

Looking like a refugee from a Lord of the Rings movie, this large sculpture of drift wood beckons beach combers along the Esquimalt Lagoon in Colwood...

The smile of a giant...

Desert dawn

A glorious dawn over the barren landscape...

 The sun rises over the Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.

We're all going one way... let's hope there's a light at the end... 💀

I'll Be Watching You

The one who patiently waits for all of us...

"Every breath you take

Every move you make

Every bond you break

Every step you take

I'll be watching you

Oh can't you see 

You belong to me"

So sang Sting and the Police in the 1983. Was he singing about a lover stalking his ex... or something more existential?

Craters of the Moon

All that remains of ancient eruptions...

Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho is a surreal black landscape of ancient volcanic rock deposited in a wild variety of shapes and textures.

Inferno Cone is a mountain of ground up pumice as black as pepper...

One tree hill...

Snake River

Looking across from Oregon to Idaho across Hells Canyon...

The Snake River winds between the states of Oregon and Idaho.

Hells Canyon is North America's deepest river gorge. At ten miles wide and over a mile and a half deep it almost rivals the Grand Canyon in its grandeur.

Once you descend down to the river, you'll see this breathtaking lunar-like landscape punctuated by oases of greenery.

The barren landscape of the Snake River...

The Overlook of the Wallawas

Apropro of the upcoming Halloween season, this decrepit and deserted hall near our campsite made me think of the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining even though it looked nothing like it.

I think it was the shuttered windows and shadowed recesses that lent it a slightly sinister atmosphere.

Companions

BFFs at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney, BC...

When you and bae are so tight that you are comfortable with each other's silence...

Men of Bronze

A contest forged in bronze...

Another view of "Attitude Adjustment", a popular sculpture by artist Austin Barton, that can be found on the main street of Joseph OR. It's probably the most photographed of the sculptures of Joseph.

A man's best friend...
next to another man

Further down the street is this statue. It pays tribute to the days when a half-naked muscular man with a solid moustache wearing only leather chaps could give his dog a bone without anyone judging him for it.

The Lonely Piano

Playing to an audience of seals, octopii and the occasional otter...

This solitary piano overlooking the Oak Bay waterfront was part of the summer's ArtsAlive program. Local artists contributed art to public spaces for the enjoyment of all. Anyone was free to stop and tickle the ivories...

Organic

Ribbons and rivers of rocks...

This rock wall beside the roadway in the local town of View Royal demonstrates catches your attention with its use of curves and colours.

Helping to distract from the boredom of the commute...

Return to Joseph

Joseph OR... nestled among the Wallowa mountains...

When we last visited the Wallowas of Oregon a few years ago, the entire area was shrouded in the smoke from wildfires.

What we saw was enough to convince us to try again to see it this year. Joseph is the cute-as-a-button town that capitalizes on its western history with dramatic bronze sculptures that line the main street.

The most photographed sculpture in Joseph...