diff --git a/earthaccess/__init__.py b/earthaccess/__init__.py
index aacf3e58..a1cb435f 100644
--- a/earthaccess/__init__.py
+++ b/earthaccess/__init__.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     get_s3_filesystem,
     get_s3fs_session,
     granule_query,
+    in_us_west_2,
     login,
     open,
     search_data,
diff --git a/earthaccess/api.py b/earthaccess/api.py
index d780e272..0be1ad0b 100644
--- a/earthaccess/api.py
+++ b/earthaccess/api.py
@@ -644,3 +644,19 @@ def auth_environ() -> Dict[str, str]:
             "`auth_environ()` requires you to first authenticate with `earthaccess.login()`"
         )
     return {"EARTHDATA_USERNAME": auth.username, "EARTHDATA_PASSWORD": auth.password}
+
+
+def in_us_west_2() -> str:
+    """Returns a message indicating if the user is in AWS region us-west-2
+
+    Returns:
+        str: string indicating if the user is in AWS region us-west-2
+    """
+    if earthaccess.__store__._running_in_us_west_2() is True:
+        return "You are running in AWS region 'us-west-2'"
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(
+            "Your instance is not running inside the"
+            " AWS us-west-2 region."
+            " You will not be able to directly access NASA Earthdata S3 buckets."
+        )
diff --git a/earthaccess/auth.py b/earthaccess/auth.py
index a0033b0e..c8f25833 100644
--- a/earthaccess/auth.py
+++ b/earthaccess/auth.py
@@ -95,12 +95,29 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
         self.token: Optional[Mapping[str, str]] = None
         self._set_earthdata_system(PROD)
 
-    def login(
-        self,
-        strategy: str = "netrc",
-        persist: bool = False,
-        system: Optional[System] = None,
-    ) -> Any:
+    def __repr__(self) -> str:
+        print_str = "Authentication Info\n" + "-------------------\n"
+        for k, v in self.auth_info.items():
+            print_str += str("{}: {}\n".format(k, v))
+
+        return print_str
+
+    @property
+    def auth_info(self) -> Dict:
+        """Get information about the authentication session.
+
+        Returns:
+            Dict: information about the auth object
+        """
+        summary_dict: Dict[str, Any]
+        summary_dict = {
+            "authenticated?": self.authenticated,
+            "tokens": self.tokens,
+        }
+
+        return summary_dict
+
+    def login(self, strategy: str = "netrc", persist: bool = False) -> Any:
         """Authenticate with Earthdata login.
 
         Parameters:
diff --git a/earthaccess/store.py b/earthaccess/store.py
index 4a06e5f2..6ce496ef 100644
--- a/earthaccess/store.py
+++ b/earthaccess/store.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Mapping, Optional, Tuple, Union
 from uuid import uuid4
 
+import botocore.session
 import fsspec
 import requests
 import s3fs
@@ -231,26 +232,10 @@ def _own_s3_credentials(self, links: List[Dict[str, Any]]) -> Union[str, None]:
         return None
 
     def _running_in_us_west_2(self) -> bool:
-        session = self.auth.get_session()
-        try:
-            # https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instancedata-data-retrieval.html
-            token_ = session.put(
-                "http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token",
-                headers={"X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds": "21600"},
-                timeout=1,
-            )
-            resp = session.get(
-                "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/region",
-                timeout=1,
-                headers={"X-aws-ec2-metadata-token": token_.text},
-            )
-        except Exception:
-            return False
-
-        if resp.status_code == 200 and b"us-west-2" == resp.content:
-            # On AWS, in region us-west-2
+        if botocore.session.get_session().get_config_variable("region") == "us-west-2":
             return True
-        return False
+        else:
+            return False
 
     def set_requests_session(
         self, url: str, method: str = "get", bearer_token: bool = True