OUR MISSION

To create a community of soft adventurers and people who have a desire to travel, with the resources and inspiration needed to overcome the barriers or roadblocks that hold them back so they can transform travel from an unattainable dream to an achievable adventure. 

ABOUT SMILKOS LENS

Hi! We are Ryan & Katy Smilko (and Junior!) and we are Smilkos Lens. Your professional guides to soft-adventures! What’s a soft-adventure? You can learn more about that below!

We along with our dog Junior, are an adventure family originally from California who loves exploring the outdoors and roadtripping the U.S. in our self-built camper van. We’re on a mission to visit all 50 U.S. States and 63 National Parks all while highlighting the best places to visit, and outdoorsy things to do.

We are also photographers, travel bloggers, and content creators – you can read more about working with us, and our offerings and services HERE. As a couple, it is our goal to live life to the fullest NOW. And for us, that means traveling, exploring, and experiencing the world in all of its beauty. Time is precious, and with so much to see, why wait?

WHAT IS SMILKOS LENS?

Smilko is our last name. So our hope, is that through our photography, our blog, and our social media, people will get to see the places we visit, through our lens, or perspective. And we hope it inspires others to get out to see and explore the outdoors as well!

HOW WE GOT STARTED

Smilkos Lens started with us meeting in August of 2015; a proud Match.com success story. The connection was instantaneous. And after only knowing each other for one month, we decided to move in with one another. And we were taking things slow. Hah! Three months later, on Christmas Eve, we were engaged. A little less than a year later, we were married (“Maui’d”) on the beautiful island of Maui HI. And we’ve been inseparable ever since!

While one might think it was our love of travel that we bonded over — Katy was not born with the travel bug. She always thought travel was for the wealthy, so she never bothered to think about it. It was Ryan’s passion for travel that opened her eyes and made her realize there is an entire world out there we need to see. And AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Ryan showed Katy that it is not only an option, but that it is accessible to anyone, and can be a life changing experience. And here we are today.

THE MAN BEHIND THE LENS

Ryan’s love for taking photos extends far before Katy met him. Our first few trips together, Katy being the good wife that she is, consisted of her standing impatiently behind Ryan while he worked to get that perfect shot. She can now see that encouraging his talent is the way to go. All he wants is to share the beautiful places in the world in hopes it will get people to experience it for themselves.

If you see any blurry photos or a picture with a finger blocking out half of it — those are Katy’s.

FULL-TIME TRAVELERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

Since the creation of our brand in 2018, we were full-time workers and part-time travelers. We made every attempt to travel whenever humanly possible and as often as our paid time off allowed. The percentage of people who have the opportunity to travel months on end, let alone full-time, is extremely low. And we wanted to show people YOU CAN travel often, even with a full-time job. But in late 2021, after spending a year converting a cargo van to a little camper van home, we moved out of our apartment and in to the van permanently. We quit their long-term full-time jobs at Apple and Wells Fargo, to put all of our time and focus in to our business. As of December 2021, we’ve officially been on the road full-time!

SOFT ADVENTURERS

What is a soft adventure? This is a phrase we adopted when we realized that doing extreme activities and adventures are not our thing. Backcountry camping, 10+ mile hikes, 14,000ft peak hikes, extreme over-landing, and extreme sports just aren’t what interest us, typically.

What you will find us doing, are hikes that are suitable for most people (typically less than 4-5 miles), hikes and adventures that are dog-friendly so we can bring Junior, and scenic drives, overlooks and viewpoints. We’ve adopted these types of activities as “Soft Adventures”!

These are the things we’ll be doing when we visit National Parks, State Parks and other popular destinations. And when you read our blog articles, or you visit our social media pages, the types of hikes and activities we recommend, will typically fall in to this soft adventure category. Not to say we will never do those more extreme activities, they just aren’t our bread and butter so to speak.

VAN LIFE

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, we decided to buy a cargo van (Savannah!), which as we mentioned above, have since converted in to a camper van home. You can read more about that HERE. As travel came to a halt in 2020, we quickly realized we needed to find a way to continue to explore and create memories, while traveling safely and responsibly. Thus, we decided to buy a van. Now that the van is complete, and we are on the road full-time, we are roadtripping and exploring the all of the U.S. and hopefully all of its National Parks! We even plan to visit parts of Canada as well. And hopefully one day, we’ll even ship Savannah off to Australia, or Iceland or maybe even South America and spend time exploring there. Time will tell!

WELCOME TO OUR COMMUNITY!

Traveling is our passion, and we love nothing more than sharing that passion and excitement with others! Hopefully learning about Smilkos Lens has given you some hope and inspiration to get out there and live your best life now. If it has, let us know!