Good question! Actually, it did register at the time. I should have gotten a closer look at it, for sure.

Scott, After all those P.wagons, Dodges, Internationals,a Mack and a Chevy,, How could you miss the best of all?? The red STUDEBAKER!!

Phone operators! There’s another relic from the past I’d forgotten about. We had those when I was growing up in West Virginia. It really is beyond comprehension how much has changed in our brief time here, isn’t it?

In the late sixties Dodie was working as a telephone operator. She still remembers how some of the numbers would be party lines, with complicated ring tones to differentiate whose line was ringing.

Thanks for the good write-ups and ideas for touring in the area. I have visiting the Burgess Shale in Kootenay National Park high on my geological life list... so it's good to have some ideas for touring when I mark that one off my list :-)

Somewhere in a box in my ex’s house is a slide of me standing in front of those blue doors, from the early 80s.

Yes!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory

Wild edibles!

----->Bill

Jiminy grasshopper, Bruce! Didn’t you watch Walt Disney when you were growing up?

I was just saying to myself, 'How do we know this is a cricket and not a grasshopper?' when I saw Bill Shaneyfelt coming to the rescue. Thank you Bill!

Looks like an immature (no wings) female (long, curved ovipositor) Mormon cricket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cricket

----->Bill

It felt pretty surreal, really. He wasn’t bothered in the least by us standing on the sidewalk 30 feet away.

If this guy was on the grass I'd say it was a statue. You're having great luck sticking your head out of your hotel door for a photo of wildlife. First a rabbit and now a sheep!

I’m pretty sure it’s a thrush, based on size if nothing else - it’s harder to tell from the photo because there’s nothing to give scale. I sent Rachael over to stand next to it with a ruler, but annoyingly he just flew off.

I’m pretty confident that it’s either a hermit or Swainson’s, but between the two of them it’s pretty tough if they don’t cooperate and sing - their songs are quite distinctive.

I knew about the Vermillion River back in the east. It’s an annoyance really - it made it difficult to research the Kootenay version because it’s so much better known. They really should rename this one to avoid confusion.

You're right! I'm calling it Aquamarine River from now on. I'm from Minnesota and up north there is a Vermillion River. It's much closer to the color vermillion, I guess from all the iron in the ground. This Aquamarine River is way more beautiful.