The Undiscovered Country of the Nearby
“We need more Americans to engage with wilderness, and not just by visiting national parks, because many can’t afford to vacation there. We need people to appreciate nature where they live, so they’ll see the importance of preserving it everywhere.”
— John Elder as interviewed by Leath Tonino in the June 2013 issue of The Sun.
I’ve been making an effort lately to appreciate where I live. And when I came across the John Elder interview above and it referenced the wonderful phrase, “the undiscovered country of the nearby,” coined by John Hanson Mitchell in his book, The Wildest Place on Earth, I was touched.
So I’ll share these pictures — all except for the one above made within three miles of my cookie-cutter house in sea of beige in northwest Bozeman. I found the snow covered boulder above along the Gallatin River about 30 miles south of me.
Thomas Lee True West 
So true, we too often think we must travel to far off exotic locations to experience natures beauty. In reality any of us who are fortunate enough to live in Montana (and many other places) have amazing beauty minutes away. Just take a few steps off your beaten path and you will amaze yourself.