In July 2008 Northern Kentucky University professors Kevin Muente (Art) and Bob Wallace (English) spent two weeks on the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington, exploring mountains, lakes, rivers, rainforests, and the ocean shore. Muente painted seven open-air sketches during the two-week trip and completed 19 studio paintings when he returned home. Wallace kept an extensive journal over the course of their travels, which he expanded into a book-length manuscript that combines nature writing with cultural history and memoir. Muente was instinctively drawn to the landscape without the people; Wallace became increasingly interested in the people within the landscape. All 26 of Muente’s paintings are reproduced in this volume. An excerpt about the paintings from Wallace’s manuscript accompanies Muente’s work.