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April 13, 2026 at 11:36 am
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Updated April 14, 2026 at 7:33 am
MEDFORD, Ore. – Sixteen-year-old South Medford student Brighton Gradisar (@brighton_goes_outdoors) has a towering goal: hike all 97 peaks in the Applegate watershed before he turns 18. Equipped with his camera, the teen has already conquered 30 peaks, embarking on long solo treks to capture the beauty of our area.
Gradisar, who began his photography journey just two years ago, specializes in self-portraits that express solitude and confidence in nature. His primary motivation is to use his art to inspire his peers to step away from their screens and escape the anxiety-inducing negativity of social media. “I feel like social media is the only way to reach people, especially people my age,” Gradisar said, noting he hopes showing the beauty of the world online will encourage youth to experience it for themselves.
“I like to express a little bit of solitude, because I always hike solo. So I like to express solitude and just confidence in being out in nature, and try and push people to explore nature as well.”
Despite traveling mostly solo, the Life Scout and assistant senior patrol leader for Jacksonville Scout Troop 17 is meticulously prepared. He learned much from his father who was a wildland firefighter and Mount Ashland ski patroller and going to the Ruch Outdoor Community School. Gradisar carries a Garmin inReach satellite messenger, bear spray, and a first aid kit with him on all his treks. He is currently earning his wilderness first aid certificate. “One time, I got up around, like, three in the morning, and then I went out for the blood moon, and I drove up to the mountain. I hiked a mile up a mountain, and then I sat there, I ate breakfast, I drank tea, and then I hiked out and I got some awesome pictures, all before school.”
Planning the hikes requires mapping routes, packing trail meals, and hiking considerable distances like a 20-mile, 4,000-foot elevation up Grayback Mountain. Once at the top, he documents the sweeping views, snapping self-portraits with the remote wilderness as his backdrop. Gradisar has made the most of the mild winter weather this year, dedicating his weekends and school holidays to the project.
“I feel like social media is the only way to reach people, especially people my age. Because older people, you can get them outside, no problem. But younger people, you have to start dragging their phones away from them and saying, Go outside, there’s so much to see.”
This ambitious 60-peak push he has left is only the beginning for Gradisar, who plans to study forestry and ecology in college and eventually become a wilderness guide. He is also a staunch advocate for local conservation, stressing the importance of native fire ecology and keeping public lands out of the hands of timber companies. “I think that we need to keep our public lands public, and I think selling them off to timber companies is never going to do anything productive for our environments.”
For now, his message to his peers is to start small: “Just find a trail. It doesn’t have to be crazy, it doesn’t have to be in the back country. It doesn’t have to be hard. It can just be a light walk around your neighborhood. Just pay attention to the trees and the flowers and the bugs and the birds, and I think that’ll really calm you down and make your life so much better in the long run, just getting out in nature as often as you can.”‘
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