For decades the lush greenery, lakes and mountainous vistas of the Olympics have been captured inside the viewfinder of millions of cameras.

As one of the most photographed and areas in the Pacific Northwest and sites of one of the oldest Boy Scouts in the United States, the Olympic National Forest and Friends of L. Ron Hubbard held a photo contest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, which preserved 9.1 million acres of federal land as wilderness.

Competitors were allowed to submit up to three digital photographs within the five wilderness areas in the Olympic National Forest: Buckhorn Wilderness; Colonel Bob Wilderness; Mount Skokomish Wilderness; the Brothers Wilderness; and Wonder Mountain Wilderness for the “Camp Parsons Wilderness 50 Photo Contest.”

Austin Ulfers, a 15-year-old Eagle Scout, of troop 438 in Bellevue, took first place with his landscape photograph of Buckhorn Wilderness. Eleven-year-old Tenderfoot Kaeden Brinkman, of troop 600 in Bellevue, won the runner-up prize for his series of images from Silver Lake.

Together, the boys won prizes worth more than $2,000, including camera equipment from Nikon, according to Louis Ricketts, of Friends of L. Ron Hubbard.

The contest was created after a series of 12 images taken of Olympic wilderness areas in 1924 by a then 13-year-old Eagle Scout L. Ron Hubbard were presented to the Olympic National Forest Supervisor Reta Laford.

Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, spent a part of his childhood in Western Washington and spent many summers in the Olympics, according to Ricketts.

Chris Finn, Washington representative from the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Foundation; Camp Parsons Director Ken McEdwards; and Kaeden Brinkman, 11, of Bellevue Troop 600 display Kaeden’s winning photos taken at Silver Lake.

Courtesy photo, Olympic National Forest