Three days, three nights.

I left Lawrence, KS early Friday morning headed west. Lawrence was my home and the home of my gallery for many years and still serves as one of my favorite places to recharge. It’s not the easiest place for me to get to generally, but most definitely one of the easiest places for me to just chill out for a little while. My Lawrence roots run deep, but more on that later.

I blasted through Kansas (I won’t bore you with the details) and ended up in Medicine Bow National Forest just as the sun was setting. It was my first time there, but holy smokes, it won’t be my last. What an amazing, beautiful place. I made a mental note to come back and thoroughly explore Medicine Bow, but for now I had a bit of a driving agenda. After an unsurprisingly disappointing breakfast in Rawlings (why didn’t I just eat bananas) I headed up beautiful Highway 287 towards Dubois.

I’m only missing my younger brother Gavin and his lady friend by a couple of days, on their first big camping adventure together. I suggested they stop at one of my very favorite camp sites, Sinks Canyon outside of Lander, which Courtney and I had discovered by accident a few years before.  You camp next to a roaring river that flows down and disappears into a cave, it it otherworldly.

So, I made it up to the The North Breccia Cliffs, which has always been such a powerful landscape to me and in my opinion the  beautiful gateway to the Teton Valley. I decided to explore a bit and drove up to Brooks Lake. My friend Margie worked at the resort up there and always told me it was exceptionally beautiful. I was not disappoined,  the Lake was pristine, and speckled with fly fishermen.

 

I was so stoked to see a bend in the road on the way back down that reminded me so much of the photo I had just taken on the lake. It’s funny how that works sometimes.

 

I spent the rest of the day  driving one the John D. Rockefeller, Jr Parkway, easily one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in America.

 

Jackson Lake, always and forever.

 

 

Grand Prismatic Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

I almost missed this amazing cloud burst on my way out of Yellowstone, fortunately nature called.

I stopped into craters on the Moon National Monument the next morning, it’s a pretty amazing volcanic landscape.

Definitely worth checking out if you ever find your self in that neck of the woods.

Now I’m off to see if I can find a place to hang this hammock on Mount Hood.

Please remember to reach out! I would love to hear from you. If there’s a spot you think I should check out, you’d like to spend an afternoon shooting photos or just want to chat, post a comment here or send me a message on Facebook. Oh, and please follow me on Twitter and Instagram @roadlyfe to stay in the loop! You can also email me at adam@roadlyfe.com.

All words and images © Adam Smith 2015.