No, That Giant Snow Wall Isn't In Washington State

Trolling in a winter wonderland.

Since Snoqualmie Pass closed on Christmas Eve, this photo has been making the rounds.

wowamazing.com

Wow. Such snow. Very frozen.

It's been shared thousands of times on Facebook, all with a caption along the lines of "Snoqualmie Pass, this is INSANE." Most people have been sharing it without a second thought, probably because they know and/or trust the person they got it from. But there are a few clues that this may not be the case.

The license plate is strange.

Via wowamazing.com

If you look closely, the license plate doesn't look like any American (or even Canadian) license plate. Its format is strange.

It's on the wrong side of the road.

In America (and Canada!), we drive on the right, not the left.

Where are all the other cars?

If this were Snoqualmie, there would be a line of cars looking like they're waiting to see The Force Awakens. This bus is a lone wolf.

So, how do we find out where it's actually from?

Via wowamazing.com

In some browsers you can simply right-click (or control-click on a Mac) on an image and do an image search. If that's not an option, you can right-click, copy the URL, and go to Google Images and plug it in.

This search will take you to an overwhelming number of results in both English and Japanese, all of which point to it being from the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route.

Case closed.

THIS was Snoqualmie on Christmas Eve

Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times / Via seattletimes.com

There are trees, other cars, a chain-up area, and no one is driving into oncoming traffic (though many probably felt like it).

Tl;dr

If it seems outlandish, think before reposting.