The first time I saw glacially melted water I was shocked at how blue it was. In my understanding, the hue results from the silt which melts along with the glacier and sits along the bottom of the flowing water. Even more beautiful than the stillness of the glacial lakes are the drops which result in waterfalls like this one. Glacier National Park in Montana is one of the most beautiful pieces of land I’ve ever visited but if you’d like to visit, be sure to do so in the next 10 years as the park staff told me the glaciers will likely be completely melted soon after that!

Early fall is the best time of year: cool air, beautiful colors and pumpkin flavorings. Autumn also brings our eight legged insect friends out in force to weave beautiful fibrous webs in the unused spaces between trees and plants. I always enjoy looking up towards the sun to find a wonderful work of art awaiting me.

Here’s to spiders!

I liked this roadside chapel in Colorado because it had a bright red exterior that contrasted sharply with the skies and the land. The grey of the overcast landscape was broken by this little house of worship.

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I’ve been slacking off on posting photos but the summer vacation is no longer, back to the weekly updates!

While on my friend Colin’s sailboat underneath the Alex Fraser Bridge I spotted this awesome tugboat full of crushed cars. I’m sure they are headed towards a happy second life

This man just purchased a Tornado Potato.

I’d be skeptical of any food named after a natural disaster as well. I’m thinking of rolling out more devastation based food treats, for example: Cyclone Carrots, Tsunami Salami or Hot Beef Sundaes (while not specifically named after a natural disaster, eat one and you’ll see why they fit in this category).

Vancouver’s English Bay is a beautiful area, I took this one from Jericho Beach looking towards downtown

the older dolls are really the scariest ones

This weekend in Western North Carolina I found an old abandoned car in the township of Balsam. Someone likely saved up for this vehicle and for whatever reason, it has been left abandoned for a while because now grass has surrounded it. A story that will be left untold for those that spot the automobile among the weeds.

How many other cities have a landfill open house? I don’t know… but Vancouver does. And people were certainly obsessed with it. Children and everyone were everywhere, even on the machinery. Kids were getting their faces painted and all other sorts of craziness was occurring.

Vancouver has a nice landfill. One of the better ones I’ve seen. The people of the metro area should be proud that we only dump 500kg/person/year… which if assume that involves 1.5 million people that is only 750 million kg per year. Way to go!

Sarcasm aside, Vancouver does have   of the smallest ecological footprints of any world city. This city only requires a little over 300X its footprint to sustain itself. NYC needs around 1000X.

Clearly, I had a lot of fun at the landfill open house. Thanks @robynchirps for the invite!

I’ll break from my photo posting tradition a little bit by including myself in a shot. However, the only way you can gain an idea of the scale and the contrast of the brutal landscape around the South Dakotan badlands is in relation to a person amongst their craggy peaks.

I hiked only about a mile through the landscape and despite chugging water most of the way (as signs everywhere tell you to) I still experienced deep heat exhaustion and a headache the rest of the day. The area radiates heat from all around and will drain you quickly!