So much of our vast country remains wilderness. You can be only a few minutes outside a town, pull off the road, take a few steps down a trail, and suddenly find yourself in near-virgin wilderness.
This is especially true in the west. The photo above was taken just a minute or two outside Red Lodge, Montana, where we came upon this vista of bracingly cold rushing water, dark, cool shade under the green trees, and deep quiet on a hot summer day.