By Tim Binnall
Visitors from far and wide are flocking to the front lawn of a home in Canada to marvel at a massive snow sculpture depicting the famed sea monster known as Ogopogo. The awesome creation, dubbed 'Snowgopogo,' is the handiwork of Vanessa Hildreth, who lives in the city of Quesnel, British Columbia. Inspired by a visit to Disneyland as a teenager wherein she spotted a topiary of a sea serpent that made her muse "someday I will do that with snow," she has spent the last ten years realizing that vision and recently unveiled the 2022 edition of the frosty monster (seen above).
Measuring a staggering 30 feet long, the Snowgopogo consists of a tail section, three humps, and a mighty head that stands six feet tall and sports glowing eyes that shine at night. According to Hildreth, it took around 35 hours over the course to two weeks to creature the sculpture, "but they'll be more hours on it as I change it up and have to do maintenance work." Stressing that the 'creature' is crafted out of snow and not ice, she explained that "it was built completely by hand. I mix snow in my wheelbarrow, if it is too cold to stick, I add water."
Hildreth's front yard has become something of a snow-topiary by way of additional creations such as "a demon rising out of the ground" as well as sculptures of turtles and lizards. The artist says that she also once "built a foot out of snow just so that I could say 'it snowed a lot last night, there's a whole foot of snow on the deck.'" Since being largely completed last month, her latest sea serpent sculpture has garnered headlines in Canada and, in turn, spawned a steady stream of traffic down Hildreth's street from people out in search of Snowgopogo.