As a sound engineer and hiker, the closest thing to an anechoic chamber is probably snow because the density and texture just absorbs sound like nothing else. On the open sea you get harsh reflections from the water surface because of surface tension. On an early morning in fresh snow before the birds wake up... wow.. best feeling ever. Plus your voice sounds incredible in the snow. Thanks for everything you do, I absolutely love your channel and your approach :) Love from across the pond!
@@MyLifeOutdoors it would definitely have an effect you could hear, but I think density-wise it wouldn't be as dramatic as heavy snow coverage. Would be awesome to record there!
A park about an hour outside Las Vegas, I was down in a narrow valley with the floor being a powdery sand. It had the same effect. It was amazing. A few years later I took a friend there. I'd been talking the place up for years about how amazingly quiet it was. We get there and find that there's a photo shoot going on in the valley. Music playing, models laying on the rocks, tables out with catering. That shit made me so sad.
Yes, I have noticed that even in the city in Minneapolis, when it's snowing (and not windy), it gets very quiet. One of those times when I love putting on my jacket and boots and just going out for a walk.
I found that total-silence going into Death Valley early one morning. I got out of my car, and there was no wind, no other cars or people, no bird sounds, no insects. It was utterly still and silent; it was wonderful.
I had a similar experience in a dry lake bed in Oregon. I woke up in the middle of the night to see the stars and heard not a sound. No wind or bugs. Even though a few hours before it was very windy.
I enjoy that silent solitude in the Paradox Valley area of Colorado when we get a chance to visit that area! Head up onto Long Park Mesa and it's quiet, not a soul around, still and quiet - so nice!
Death Valley is quiet like no other place I know BUT.... fighter jets buzz and dog fight over the place in the daytime. sonic booms are frequent. Proof that NPS has failed
I have tinnitus so my world is never quiet. I was in Rocky Mountain National Park, and I was leaving for the day, so I stopped to have one last look. I got out of my car and hiked to a rock outcropping to take it all in. Complete silence except the ringing in my ears. I could not bring myself to leave. It was the only time I heard nothing but the ringing in my ears. This was and still is one of the best experiences I've ever had in the wilderness. In the wild all the senses are heightened even if they are compromised. Thank you for all that you bring to the hiking community.
That is interesting you mention this because I thought of tinnitus as I watched this Vid. I have it as well, maybe not horribly, but when i went to a hearing Clinic specializing in it their treatment was de-awareness. While it’s not a ideal solution, that matches the “what you don’t notice can’t hurt you” theory and the statement of we’ve now been ruined for ever ;)
Being an audio engineer as well as a hiker, this was easily my favorite video of yours. Some of my favorite moments are most memorable because of the rare quiet and peace that I found there. For me, the standout was a snowy day hike to Lake Ptarmigan in Colorado. Thank you very very much for making this.
I agree. I especially remember the many winters where the powder snow has just fallen and all the trees are covered. The only thing you can hear in such a place is your own breathing and the pulse in your inner ear. Yes, you can hear your own blood flowing in your veins :-D I have to say that for me it is absolutely meditative, to feel completely "alone" with oneself without any external disturbances. sadly, these moments will disappear in the near future due to global warming
I physically felt my heart rate decrease and my shoulders lose tension just from watching this video. Incredible concept! Thanks for the time, energy, and financial commitment you gave for this video. Easily one of my favorites you’ve ever done!
I went on my first overnight backpacking trip last weekend and one of the most memorable moments was the morning of the second day. I woke up before the sun came up and I laid in my tent for a long while in absolute silence. No wind. no wildlife. And suddenly I heard one bird call, and before long the entire forest around me was filled with birdsong. It may sound simple but it was a pretty magical moment and one I wont soon forget.
Gordon Hempton calls that the dawn chorus. He says the first hour before and two hours after sunrise is when the atmosphere is the calmest. Birds sing because their songs carry the farthest in those conditions. Unfortunately so do other sounds. Thank you for watching. I’m glad you enjoyed your first trip. I hope you have many more.
A persistent yearning for quiet is one of my chief motivations for doing outdoor things; it's getting harder and harder to find a place where that quiet exists, and I miss it.
Most outdoor places I go are filled with all kinds of natural noise. I'm wondering if you're seeking quiet, or if you're really seeking moments to disconnect with the human world.
Are you seriously old enough to remember a time when the world wasn't filled with cars and industrial noise? I doubt most people alive today are. So saying you "miss it" is a bit odd, unless you're like 100+ years old. Maybe you just have romanticized memories of being in a quiet place as a child. Our memories are, after all, devoid of sound.
You put so much effort and passion into this video and it really shows. Thank you for being such an advocate for silence! Several years ago we took our kids backpacking in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. When we got home, all four of us complained about how noisy our home life was. The droning of the neighbor's air conditioning, the hum of the refrigerator, cars going by on our street and so on. It was quite a shock to us all to realized how much background noise we live with in ordinary life.
Yeah it's so unconsciously conditioned. Products now use phrases like "Quiet generator" or even "super quiet generator/air compressor" which I think is outrageous.
As someone who grew up in rural Alaska, noise pollution was rare and I was given many opportunities for silence! Although I have been somewhat desensitized to noise, I do tent to seek out places with the least amount of noise. The High Uinta wilderness is somewhere here in Utah that I feel I have frequently been able to find silence for extended periods of time. Now I will bring a timer and a notebook to take notice!
I don't know how it was back then, but I've read now air traffic over rural Alaska is much greater than people would imagine-whether military or private travel through areas that lack roads.
I live in Minnesota and was going to suggest the Boundary Waters. If you get out in a canoe, you can get get very far off grid there if you really put your mind to it. I also thought of the Hoh rain forest but not Big Bend, even though I've been there. Very legit topic, much like the Dark Sky Parks project. Light and sound are both pollution. Great video and thank you!
I'm sitting at camp next to a lake in rural Guizhou, China and watching this video. It made me realize why I like this particular spot so much and come back time after time - it's quiet. Occasionally planes still pop up in the distance, but when it's quiet, I could hear fisherman across the lake clearing his throat, among sounds birds, bugs, and the wind blowing thru the leaves. On quiet nights I get to enjoy silence and it feels magical. Thanks!
So I'm not the only one! I have two kids, 6 and 7 years old, and I love using our senses when we're outdoors and in the wilderness. When you're far from roads, it's possible to find some complete silence. One windless morning this spring along the shore of a calm lake I was blown away by the silence, and then a crow probably 100 yards away took off from a tree and I could hear its wings flapping as if it were just 10 ft away! Seriously one of the most amazing moments I've ever experienced in nature. Just last weekend, I was on a canoe trip with my family in a remote Canadian National Park, and we were gifted with no wind, and we stopped paddling on the lake and appreciated the total silence. So magical! It's truly one of my favourite things.
Love this! As an amateur sound recordist, it is amazing how much human noise there is: our brains usually filter it out heard live, but listening to recordings it is all there. We have lost a world of quiet that most of our ancestors would have known.
I love this video!!! I’m with you on this. Incredible storytelling, editing, and the purpose of this video is so on point with today’s issues. One other factor in this… you touched on it briefly, and that’s the importance of silence in mental health. Mental health is at critical heights. I think the lack of quiet places is a big factor in this.
Hiking in winter with snow on the ground, while it’s snowing (more than lightly) is the most quiet I have ever experienced. Aside from anechoic chambers I have been in - those drive me crazy, mostly because there is no echo.
Thank you for showing us where we have at least a chance to enjoy a near total lack of human noise. I'm planning a journey following your footsteps. Fingers crossed.
This video is amazing. I’m in disbelief and also nearly brought to tears. Such a fantastic job on this. I can’t imagine all the work and time that went into it. Thank you!
One of the greatest thing about being in the backcountry is the silence. Did a trip in Big bend this winter there were some places that were pretty much total silence. Idiots that insist on playing music on the trail are extremely annoying. Earbuds were invented for people that can't stand silence. Don't bring your noise pollution with you into the backcountry.
Big Bend is one of a few places in the US with very little commercial air traffic, BUT the Air Force has recently began pushing for noisy overnight training in the Big Bend area. Google "Notice of intent for Environmental Impact Statement for T-7A recapitalization at Laughlin"
I have noticed this for a long time. I find it pretty much impossible to get away from people anymore in my area, and even when I can, I get air traffic. It is truly maddening...
What an interesting experiment. Kudos to you for asking a question and putting in the very real effort into exploring it. It's possibly my favorite video of yours and that's a difficult choice. As I continued watching, it reminded me of a time I was hiking separate and alone from my JMT thru-hiking group in 2014. I was taking a solo lunch break near Mt. Whitney on the western side. I remember the welcome shade, cool breeze, and the quiet. It may be the most at peace I've ever been in my life. Thanks for that reminder. ☮❤🤝
This earned my subscription. Incredible video. I've been emailing my representatives recently to try and work on reducing light pollution. A lot of my energy has been on light pollution stealing the stars from us, but noise pollution is stealing the music of nature. Thanks for this video
I just want to say you're amazing for the amount of work you put into your content! This was awesome, and reminded me of my last trip to Olympic. We were high up on a ridge, and it was incredible, to have our quiet morning interrupted by a helicopter flying through the basin below us on what looked like a joy ride. It was quite obnoxious and completely took me out of the mental enjoyment I was having being in such a remote, off trail location. Thanks, Steven!
The last time I did any serious backpacking was in a national park and I left in the middle of the night due to air traffic noise every 10 minutes, couldn't sleep. 5 miles in, 5 miles out.
I was on a remote island deep in the Antarctic Circle once. It was the quietest thing I ever heard, not a plane or ruffling leaf. The buzzing of my own ears was the loudest thing.
You really speak my mind. It's also the reason why I went camping and filmed my experiences in a silent vlog style, aiming to truly appreciate the truest beauty of nature. I find it incredibly meditative. Fortunately, here in Australia, it's not hard to find peaceful and quiet places. Your video truly enhances my appreciation for the tranquility of nature. Thank you for sharing this!
Amen. Flying drones over a natural area which other people are also enjoying is just really rude. Find a way to get your shots that doesn't cast a massive circle of horribly intrusive noise over the beautifully quiet area that we all appreciate!
Witnessed an older gentleman chew out someone for flying a drone at Moraine Lake in Banff. Obviously illegal in a national park on top of being kind of annoying in general
I *treasure* the moments where I've gotten to experience *any* level of quiet - during the early morning hours in camp (between airplanes), .or in a desert after a snowfall... As noisy as the wilderness is now, it's sooo much better than what you get in urban areas.
Thank you for bringing further attention to this important topic! We all have a shared individual, and group responsibility to protect the natural silence!
What a masterpiece. I absolutely enjoyed every second of this! Thanks for bringing awareness to this and for all of the work that went into this… especially all of that beautiful B-Roll! 😅
So engaging! I work in commercial construction, the constant noise is something I struggle with. Makes me seek out the quiet of nature. I’ll def be listening out for planes in the future….
A large owl was perched on a tree limb, in broad daylight, half asleep. When he saw me he got ready to fly away. I thought: Good, I will now hear an owl fly. I became perfectly still and placed my attention on listening to the owl. The owl lifted himself from the branch in absolute perfect silence. I had heard the sound of silence.
Dude. One of the best RUclips videos I've seen. I love that you're covering aspects of the outdoor experience that not everyone on RUclips does. Thank you for the way you present the issues, the data you provide, and the openness with which you explore the issue. I spend a lot of time in quiet places but have to admit I've purposefully gotten perturbed by road noise or airplanes.
This is one of the reasons I love winter. I spent five days hiking and climbing across the English Lake District this winter and over three of those days I only saw five people. This time of year however is surprisingly hard to come across.
This is an issue Ive been concerned about for many years. One of the primary reasons I backpack is to find the silence. As you clearly demonstrated, its sadly becoming impossible to find. BUT... In those rare moments I find it, I can literally feel my mind and body relax. I hope the we will awake to the need to protect at least some of these spaces before its too late. Thank you for hard work bringing this issue to light for others to contemplate.
There are only a few places left that I'd even consider going hiking anymore exactly because of the aircraft noise which is almost constant most other places.
Psalm 65:1 says " Silence is praise to you oh God." I think establishing truly quite places is thus, very important. I wholly endorse this mission. Thank you for raising awareness. I've been in some truly quiet places in Idaho. It is very, very calming and restful for the soul.
Beautiful video! Please keep making more videos like this. The effort you put into this is incredible. If you ever visit Helsinki, there is the Kamppi Chapel in the heart of a bustling city that is known as the church of silence. It was an incredible experience to be in a noisy city and step off a busy street and be in a completely quiet place. Would love if some sponsors could send you to places around the world to continue this amazing quest!
I watch quite a few hiking videos but this was easily the most thought-provoking in a long time. As a geologist and geographer who spends a lot of time outdoors, I've noticed that for the last 50 years, the places I hike, hunt, and camp are always "cultural landscapes". There is always a fenceline, a power pole, a road or trail, or a jet contrail somewhere in the viewscape to remind me of the pervasive influence of humans on our world. Now I'll be listening too.
The same for people. I also started backpacking 50 years ago. Hiking for a week and sometimes more without seeing another soul was common if you picked even somewhat remote hikes. Today, it is very difficult to go more than a day or maybe two without seeing another person or a small group.
From a guy who lives in Alaska I can say that this is true. Cars and trucks are pretty easy to get away from. Like he said the airplanes are the hardest part. However I'm in a spot in Alaska that has a population of 2000 people and we get one airplane in and out a week. It's pretty quiet once you get off the highway.
A thoughtful essay on seeking the sounds of silence in the wild. Many thanks for taking us to such extraordinarily lovely spaces. On a lighter note, you might chuckle that, as you lay in your tent in the Boundary Waters and observed that "Something interesting just happened . . .", RUclips immediately interrupted my viewing with a commercial that began "The man with raging hemorrhoids enters the room." Hard to get that unfortunate juxtaposition out of my head . . .
I get so frustrated with videos that talk about backpacking gear and it is automatically assumed you must have podcasts or music available instantly and constantly. I truly believe that PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF SILENCE because they would have to live with their own thoughts. Pure nature sights and sounds are the reason I went backpacking. Thankfully it was a time before cell phones, and the idea of music out there...we just listened to water and birds and trees 'breathing' .
As long we can appreciate any silence that affords us is grateful. I live in a town in the high desert of Southern California just north of Ontario airport. Airplanes fly over to approach Ontario. One night few years ago about 2am I could not sleep so went outside, put my lawn chair in middle of my property and waited. It took about 10 min for no cars going down the 2 lane road, no dogs barking at shadows or coyotes howling, and all other desert noises to stop. For approximately 1 minute I had complete silence and heard the gentle wind. Perfect. Then the dogs bark…
Back in 2010, when that volcano erupted in Iceland, forcing the air trafic to stop, we were having lunch outside on sunday and... something was wrong. It took us quite a long time to figure out what it was : there were no airplaines over our heads. The usual drone wouldn't be heard. It was _so_ peaceful.
This is a wonderful video and needs to be discussed about the true quietness of natural spaces. I’ll never forget winter hiking in Upstate New York, it was softly snowing, no wind, no cars, no planes, no birds. I occasionally would hear a tree give and creak. But, when I stopped and listened. The only thing I could hear was my breath and heart pounding in my chest. Feeling the cold of winter and the blood pumping in my body. I looked up at the sun shining god-rays through the trees. So serene, peaceful and quiet. It was so beautiful, that my full body was overwhelmed with goosebumps and tears filled my eyes. The most purest natural moment of nature I’ve ever experienced.
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I love to enjoy the silence in the nature, unfortunately very very difficult to find it due to the airplanes traffic everywhere. So maybe the caving/speleology will be the only activity that can take us to enjoy a really completely quiet environment. But yes, the air traffic it's insane and they should protect some areas from that. Congratulations for this amazing content, I really liked it. Regards from Spain
Man, tell me about it... I'm glad you've brought this up - I'm a sound engineer / recordist and recently was trying to get some forest / rural recordings in the South East UK and it's pretty much impossible, between planes and distant highway / motorway noise. Ironically the quietest place I can find is my studio in the middle of a city! I have longterm plans to do some thru-hiking and recording in the US and was wondering about noise pollution; I guess it's a problem everywhere then unless I go to one of these Wilderness Quiet Park regions.. But yep, the paradox.. to get there, you end up contributing to the issue...
Yes, I don't know the stats, but it's a floating room, so only maintenance work on areas directly adjacent and connected to the core of the studio structure can pass through :)@@mountains1233
Don't give up. You will eventually find it. Caves might be interesting for babbling water. Mountain ridges in the wind, and if you go far enough from society you will find what you seek.
Come to norway and you'll find many places with little to no man made noises. I generally never hear anything when i hike from my parents place. It's about a 5 minute drive to the forest and goes all the way to sweden. I'm educated sound designer and fellow hiker myself. This video hit home and it saddens me greatly that it's such a big issue over there. Here we treat nature quite sacredly. It's a big part of our country and we try to leave it as untouched as possible. We obviously have less air traffic here as well. Will never take it for granted. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
This is my favoirite video you've made. I find artificial noise really really annoying, especially road noise but also planes. Thanks for highlightingh this problem
I've hiked and backpacked all over the country, and I've only got to experience true and total silence a few times. When it happens, it's actually pretty erie and makes your hair stand up. The last time I felt it, I was traveling the "loneliest road" in Nevada, camping for days in the area. I made it to my spot at daylight, and once night hit and I was ready to go to sleep, it happened abruptly. ZERO SOUND. I honestly started freaking out. I kept having to tap my ears to not go crazy and i started seeing things off in the distance in the desert. Whether it was real or hallucinations, I'll never know, but the lack of sound that night made me so afraid. It was like a primal, instinctual fear. I had extreme trouble falling asleep because of it
Your quest is understandable. The silence in the days following 9/11 was incredible. The complete halt in commercial air travel brought the noise level down noticeably, with punctuation added by the startling passes of military jets on patrol. It is very difficult to find spaces where there is no noise, especially from airplanes. I can regularly find spots without ground or water vehicle noise, but air vehicles make their mark on the soundscape on at least an irregular basis a couple of times a day. But that minimal noise intrusion reminds us that the world is filled with quieter sounds and is very rarely truly silent. Even on the quietest, most still days we can hear the rustle of leaves and even the popping of cones dropping from the trees, and the birds and tiny mammals feeding for energy to build their next generation. Thanks for this moment of quiet contemplation, the garbage truck outside the house seems extremely loud right now 😂
Your comment hit home for me. I worked near Dorval airport in Montréal, under a direct flight path for landing. On 9/11, so many planes were diverted and landed here. It was deafening for a few hours, but the following 48 hours were kinda eerie because of how quiet it was.
During Covid, when travel here in Scotland was by and large restricted to your local area, one of the most striking things I noticed was how quiet and empty the skies were. I live between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with flight paths for both airports in the vicinity, so it was immediately apparent just how much air traffic there was and how much we had become accustomed to their presence. I do find that in many areas of Scotland we can be far enough from roads that we can obtain that "natural silence", and where planes may be visible, but at such a height as to be out of audible range.
Thank you for this. The result justifies what was obviously a huge effort. For my part, although I knew silence was going the way of dark skies, I was not aware of Quiet Parks International’s worthy efforts.
I worked at a job site in Las Vegas that was somewhere in the flight path where all those Grand Canyon helicopter tours are flying in/out of. At one point in the day, that helicopter noise is almost constant. If it wasn't that, it was a constant noise of playing music. Vegas is one of the loudest places I've been to.
I think this is my favorite episode yet. Thank you for bringing attention to such an important subject! This was an Awesome Video!! People forget how beautiful silence is.
This is a phenomenal video, and so needed to bring conscious awareness to this issue. Human-generated noise pollution is often connected to climate change, too, with Air Traffic contributing massive amount of CO2 to our air.
Yeah, this is another thing I thought of. I've been to mountain wildernesses and seen the shrunken state of the glaciers there, and thought to myself "wait a minute, how much jet fuel and gasoline was burned so that I could see this sad sight?" Even the things we do to try to escape to unspoiled nature contribute in small ways to its destruction. We really need to find ways to travel more sustainably, or future generations won't have the same places to escape to.
My newest prophet. WHAT A GREAT VIDEO!!! Thank you for putting this together. When my grandson was just a young toddler, in only a diaper, he was climbing the stairs, by himself. “Where ya going, Gabe”, we asked. “I just need a little peace and quiet”, he said.
Loved this video & I am so glad you made it! I suffer from not being able to filter out human made noises, I seem to hear everything at the same time. When I try to explain how it affects me mentally, (it also affected my learning growing up) most people dont understand. But not here on this thread 💚 For me, human noise has become much worse post-pandemic, the world suddenly became really loud again, And it angers me. I try to manage my feelings by submersing myself in nature as much as possible, this video shows how difficult it is to escape it. I honestly felt like i was going to have a breakdown when the world started to move again. I have in the past lost my sh@# whilst out hiking because of human made noises, ending up screaming at unseen people, yelling to them to shut the hell up. I feel ashamed of my behaviour & have it back under control (most of the time). I live in the UK, the midlands & have difficulty finding natures peace & quiet, restricted mostly because of finances & commitments. The UK is such a tiny, but loud place. 😶😵💫 Sorry for the rambling, stay happy & safe out on the trails 💚🏕
Great video. Appreciate all the time put into this. I went on a trip and while the views were great, there was a gun range nearby going off during the day and then drag racing at night from a nearby highway. All while jets were flying over. I was solo and there was absolutely nobody around me at the time but it was still one of my worst trips.
Thank you for this video and for bringing attention on this topic! We have a big big problem of sound pollution and to me it seams as if this is a very underrated problem. I also experienced total silence on top of a mountain in the Karvendel Mountains in the austrian alps and it was and will ever be an unforgetable experience I told and will tell so many people about.
This is an important issue. I am 74 and have lost a great deal of my hearing, so finding quiet is easy for me - i just take my hearing aides out. After talking with audiologists,it is clear that many people are unintentionally destroying their hearing. Just one rock concert can do significant damage. My hearing was probably destroyed by chain saws. I was careless and uninformed about exposing myself to loud noise. I live in Maine and Arizona. Arizona has planes all over the place, but Maine is not under many flight paths so I notice a significant difference.
Absolutely great video! And a real eye opener too for somebody like me who comes from Finland and is used to experiencing quiet regularly. America is very, very loud and disruptive - especially in everyday places.
I was once hiking in a forest in Victoria, Australia. Beautiful place, full of tall ferns, very tall eucalyptus trees, and lots of bird calls. The trail was narrow and not much else around. No other trails or campsites. Every now and then, I could hear murmurs in the near distance, so I expected to run into another group of hikers. Oddly, I never did. This puzzled me. Later I found out it was Lyrebirds, which were mimicking ‘human noises’. These birds have been known to mimic chainsaws, car alarms, even camera sounds, and yes, people too. I had spotted a few lyrebirds back at camp where I noticed them making kookaburra, magpie, and other bird calls, one right after the other. It was amazing, couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.
I've always hated hearing anthropic noises in wild areas. Most of the places I visited always had the noises of planes, cars, some guy using a chainsaw, barking of dogs... As you said, it's like these sounds disconnect us from our experience of Nature.
It is very rare to be able to experience absolute silence anywhere. If it does occur, many folk find the silence disturbing because they're so used to some type of background noise no matter how subtle.
I would guess people “go crazy” in a quiet room is; they are at the mercy of their own thoughts. Also have heard, waterfronts (lakes, rivers, oceans) offer a soothing/calming sensation that help you relax. Which is probably why property next to them is overpriced. (In theory.) Thank you for the post! Really enjoyed this video!
Yea i would definitely go crazy in a quiet room. Not only do I have trouble maintaining control over my thoughts in regular moments but when it’s quiet it’s so much worse I’ve noticed, so I play white noise to fall asleep for that reason. If my normal room at night is too quiet for me to feel sane, a million dollar quiet room would probably kill me lmao. Not to mention the tinnitus I get when it’s really quiet.
The most annoying sound for me in the mountains or desert is not the aircraft overhead or a loud motorcycle on a distant highway but rather the sounds of people shouting or partying... Now, it seems, you can't even go into the forest to get away from people or even the sounds of people... Sigh... 😕
This is true. The last time I was in the Hoh rainforest (the time before this) there was a group camped not far from us that kept yelling into the night. I don’t even think they knew we were there…but it was really annoying
@@MyLifeOutdoors Oh absolutely, I had a camp late last summer. Mind you it was a dispersed camp just off of a relatively busy forest road and it was not the road, for the most part, that was the problem. The camp sites were only 50 to 100 yards apart. My neighbors to my east and west I could easily see through the trees.. The camp to my east went about their business all through the day, evening and night and I never hear a sound from them, however, the camp to the west of mine was non stop noise from the time they pulled in till the wee hours of the night.. Now keep in mind that the camp to my east was the closest and as quiet as can be expected. The other camp, at least twice the distance away, was just the opposite... I did not check the noisy camp after they left but I have no doubt that they did not abide by LNT. Great video MLO and an awesome topic.
I’m going to add use of noisy gas generators people bring for conveniences they should have left behind while they’re out enjoying nature w a noisy boondock.
We encountered this partying late into the night in the backcountry of Algonquin Park in Ontario a few years ago. No roads, the only way in is canoes and portages. You would think that would weed out most party animals? And you'd think those that made that effort to get there, would value that quiet and remoteness as part of that experience. Apparently not!
The Olympics are different because there's virtually zero air traffic going over the top. Definitely one of the quietest places out there. EDIT: Made that comment before your air traffic segment. Glad you touched on it! EDIT 2: YESSS! The Hoh is the best! I was in Enchanted Valley last weekend (saw @hungryhiker!).
Love it! You never really take into account All the things that make noise. Although not your standard content, I really appreciate this one quite a bit. Thanks so much for going to three epic places to prove your point.
This is my favorite video of yours! It’s such an important topic. To me the worst thing is people listening to music or talking on speakerphone. Do that at home, don’t disturb other people!
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As a sound engineer and hiker, the closest thing to an anechoic chamber is probably snow because the density and texture just absorbs sound like nothing else. On the open sea you get harsh reflections from the water surface because of surface tension. On an early morning in fresh snow before the birds wake up... wow.. best feeling ever. Plus your voice sounds incredible in the snow. Thanks for everything you do, I absolutely love your channel and your approach :) Love from across the pond!
I thought of that too. I also wondered if the moss of Olympic would absorb sound.
@@MyLifeOutdoors it would definitely have an effect you could hear, but I think density-wise it wouldn't be as dramatic as heavy snow coverage. Would be awesome to record there!
@@HarmLess7 I heard that little airholes in the snow aborb sound.
If that is what you mean by texture.
A park about an hour outside Las Vegas, I was down in a narrow valley with the floor being a powdery sand. It had the same effect. It was amazing. A few years later I took a friend there. I'd been talking the place up for years about how amazingly quiet it was. We get there and find that there's a photo shoot going on in the valley. Music playing, models laying on the rocks, tables out with catering. That shit made me so sad.
Yes, I have noticed that even in the city in Minneapolis, when it's snowing (and not windy), it gets very quiet. One of those times when I love putting on my jacket and boots and just going out for a walk.
I found that total-silence going into Death Valley early one morning. I got out of my car, and there was no wind, no other cars or people, no bird sounds, no insects. It was utterly still and silent; it was wonderful.
I had a similar experience in a dry lake bed in Oregon. I woke up in the middle of the night to see the stars and heard not a sound. No wind or bugs. Even though a few hours before it was very windy.
I enjoy that silent solitude in the Paradox Valley area of Colorado when we get a chance to visit that area! Head up onto Long Park Mesa and it's quiet, not a soul around, still and quiet - so nice!
Yep, lack of air moving is key to total silence.
Death Valley is quiet like no other place I know BUT.... fighter jets buzz and dog fight over the place in the daytime. sonic booms are frequent. Proof that NPS has failed
And here i am, even white noise would be nice since silence means listening to my own thoughts.
I have tinnitus so my world is never quiet. I was in Rocky Mountain National Park, and I was leaving for the day, so I stopped to have one last look. I got out of my car and hiked to a rock outcropping to take it all in. Complete silence except the ringing in my ears. I could not bring myself to leave. It was the only time I heard nothing but the ringing in my ears. This was and still is one of the best experiences I've ever had in the wilderness. In the wild all the senses are heightened even if they are compromised. Thank you for all that you bring to the hiking community.
Me too, tinnitus means silence is lost forever, and it's only when I developed it that I realised how precious silence is.
That is interesting you mention this because I thought of tinnitus as I watched this Vid. I have it as well, maybe not horribly, but when i went to a hearing Clinic specializing in it their treatment was de-awareness. While it’s not a ideal solution, that matches the “what you don’t notice can’t hurt you” theory and the statement of we’ve now been ruined for ever ;)
Ditto. Tinnitus from a SWAT shooting indoors. Happened in my 30s and I'm in my 60s now. What I'd give to actually 'hear' silence!
@@greyscout01 how u got into that situation?
@@calid. I'm a retired cop of 40-years. Many years on the SWAT Team.
Being an audio engineer as well as a hiker, this was easily my favorite video of yours. Some of my favorite moments are most memorable because of the rare quiet and peace that I found there. For me, the standout was a snowy day hike to Lake Ptarmigan in Colorado. Thank you very very much for making this.
I agree. I especially remember the many winters where the powder snow has just fallen and all the trees are covered. The only thing you can hear in such a place is your own breathing and the pulse in your inner ear. Yes, you can hear your own blood flowing in your veins :-D I have to say that for me it is absolutely meditative, to feel completely "alone" with oneself without any external disturbances. sadly, these moments will disappear in the near future due to global warming
@@kaaremadsen9278 luckily my tinnitus will always be there to keep me company no matter how silent it gets.
@@Winstonrodney6989 a sad reality for so many of us.
Funny how there's more than 1 comment starting with, "as an audio engineer and a hiker..."
Is it a common pairing of hobbies, do you think?
I physically felt my heart rate decrease and my shoulders lose tension just from watching this video. Incredible concept! Thanks for the time, energy, and financial commitment you gave for this video. Easily one of my favorites you’ve ever done!
Thank you. It was a bit of a passion project. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
In fact people don't realize to which point being in constant noises affect their mood and behaviors.
I went on my first overnight backpacking trip last weekend and one of the most memorable moments was the morning of the second day. I woke up before the sun came up and I laid in my tent for a long while in absolute silence. No wind. no wildlife. And suddenly I heard one bird call, and before long the entire forest around me was filled with birdsong. It may sound simple but it was a pretty magical moment and one I wont soon forget.
Gordon Hempton calls that the dawn chorus. He says the first hour before and two hours after sunrise is when the atmosphere is the calmest. Birds sing because their songs carry the farthest in those conditions. Unfortunately so do other sounds. Thank you for watching. I’m glad you enjoyed your first trip. I hope you have many more.
A persistent yearning for quiet is one of my chief motivations for doing outdoor things; it's getting harder and harder to find a place where that quiet exists, and I miss it.
Well said!
"Without wilderness civilization is a cage."
Most outdoor places I go are filled with all kinds of natural noise.
I'm wondering if you're seeking quiet, or if you're really seeking moments to disconnect with the human world.
There are some spots that still have it. You do have to look for them though
Are you seriously old enough to remember a time when the world wasn't filled with cars and industrial noise? I doubt most people alive today are. So saying you "miss it" is a bit odd, unless you're like 100+ years old. Maybe you just have romanticized memories of being in a quiet place as a child. Our memories are, after all, devoid of sound.
You put so much effort and passion into this video and it really shows. Thank you for being such an advocate for silence!
Several years ago we took our kids backpacking in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. When we got home, all four of us complained about how noisy our home life was. The droning of the neighbor's air conditioning, the hum of the refrigerator, cars going by on our street and so on. It was quite a shock to us all to realized how much background noise we live with in ordinary life.
Yeah it's so unconsciously conditioned. Products now use phrases like "Quiet generator" or even "super quiet generator/air compressor" which I think is outrageous.
@@mountains1233 at least they're trying to minimise noise while still meeting the requirement of needing a generator or compressor
As someone who grew up in rural Alaska, noise pollution was rare and I was given many opportunities for silence! Although I have been somewhat desensitized to noise, I do tent to seek out places with the least amount of noise. The High Uinta wilderness is somewhere here in Utah that I feel I have frequently been able to find silence for extended periods of time. Now I will bring a timer and a notebook to take notice!
I don't know how it was back then, but I've read now air traffic over rural Alaska is much greater than people would imagine-whether military or private travel through areas that lack roads.
I live in Minnesota and was going to suggest the Boundary Waters. If you get out in a canoe, you can get get very far off grid there if you really put your mind to it. I also thought of the Hoh rain forest but not Big Bend, even though I've been there. Very legit topic, much like the Dark Sky Parks project. Light and sound are both pollution. Great video and thank you!
I'm sitting at camp next to a lake in rural Guizhou, China and watching this video. It made me realize why I like this particular spot so much and come back time after time - it's quiet. Occasionally planes still pop up in the distance, but when it's quiet, I could hear fisherman across the lake clearing his throat, among sounds birds, bugs, and the wind blowing thru the leaves. On quiet nights I get to enjoy silence and it feels magical.
Thanks!
So I'm not the only one! I have two kids, 6 and 7 years old, and I love using our senses when we're outdoors and in the wilderness. When you're far from roads, it's possible to find some complete silence. One windless morning this spring along the shore of a calm lake I was blown away by the silence, and then a crow probably 100 yards away took off from a tree and I could hear its wings flapping as if it were just 10 ft away! Seriously one of the most amazing moments I've ever experienced in nature. Just last weekend, I was on a canoe trip with my family in a remote Canadian National Park, and we were gifted with no wind, and we stopped paddling on the lake and appreciated the total silence. So magical! It's truly one of my favourite things.
Love this! As an amateur sound recordist, it is amazing how much human noise there is: our brains usually filter it out heard live, but listening to recordings it is all there. We have lost a world of quiet that most of our ancestors would have known.
When you have a good camping zen going and a combustion engine breaks it, it's violating. Great piece, well done
It’s amazing how loud it can seem and how much we learn to ignore it in our daily lives. Thanks for watching! I admire your channel.
@@MyLifeOutdoorsmuch appreciated and the feeling is mutual!
Love this video and it “resonates” with me so much. I definitely seek silence, or at least only the voices of nature, when I go out hiking or camping.
Have been watching these backpacking videos for a year and half now (ever since I got back into hiking)..maybe the best one I have seen yet.
I love this video!!! I’m with you on this. Incredible storytelling, editing, and the purpose of this video is so on point with today’s issues. One other factor in this… you touched on it briefly, and that’s the importance of silence in mental health. Mental health is at critical heights. I think the lack of quiet places is a big factor in this.
I am really glad you address this subject!
Hiking in winter with snow on the ground, while it’s snowing (more than lightly) is the most quiet I have ever experienced. Aside from anechoic chambers I have been in - those drive me crazy, mostly because there is no echo.
Wow, this was so well done. Thanks for creating this, Steven.
Thank you for showing us where we have at least a chance to enjoy a near total lack of human noise. I'm planning a journey following your footsteps. Fingers crossed.
This video is amazing. I’m in disbelief and also nearly brought to tears. Such a fantastic job on this. I can’t imagine all the work and time that went into it. Thank you!
One of the greatest thing about being in the backcountry is the silence. Did a trip in Big bend this winter there were some places that were pretty much total silence. Idiots that insist on playing music on the trail are extremely annoying. Earbuds were invented for people that can't stand silence. Don't bring your noise pollution with you into the backcountry.
Agree. If I ever run into anyone playing music in the backcountry... well, I won't incriminate myself here.
Big Bend is one of a few places in the US with very little commercial air traffic, BUT the Air Force has recently began pushing for noisy overnight training in the Big Bend area. Google "Notice of intent for Environmental Impact Statement for T-7A recapitalization at Laughlin"
Very well put together. This is absolutely superb! It is very scary that we have to search so hard to find complete silence...
I have noticed this for a long time. I find it pretty much impossible to get away from people anymore in my area, and even when I can, I get air traffic. It is truly maddening...
How inspiring. I haven't felt a desire to be somewhere like I felt watching your sunset views in Big Bend. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face
What an interesting experiment. Kudos to you for asking a question and putting in the very real effort into exploring it. It's possibly my favorite video of yours and that's a difficult choice.
As I continued watching, it reminded me of a time I was hiking separate and alone from my JMT thru-hiking group in 2014. I was taking a solo lunch break near Mt. Whitney on the western side. I remember the welcome shade, cool breeze, and the quiet. It may be the most at peace I've ever been in my life. Thanks for that reminder. ☮❤🤝
This earned my subscription. Incredible video. I've been emailing my representatives recently to try and work on reducing light pollution. A lot of my energy has been on light pollution stealing the stars from us, but noise pollution is stealing the music of nature. Thanks for this video
I just want to say you're amazing for the amount of work you put into your content! This was awesome, and reminded me of my last trip to Olympic. We were high up on a ridge, and it was incredible, to have our quiet morning interrupted by a helicopter flying through the basin below us on what looked like a joy ride. It was quite obnoxious and completely took me out of the mental enjoyment I was having being in such a remote, off trail location.
Thanks, Steven!
Nice to see you here.😊
Go hang out with Jake Morrison somemore
The last time I did any serious backpacking was in a national park and I left in the middle of the night due to air traffic noise every 10 minutes, couldn't sleep. 5 miles in, 5 miles out.
I was on a remote island deep in the Antarctic Circle once. It was the quietest thing I ever heard, not a plane or ruffling leaf. The buzzing of my own ears was the loudest thing.
You really speak my mind. It's also the reason why I went camping and filmed my experiences in a silent vlog style, aiming to truly appreciate the truest beauty of nature. I find it incredibly meditative. Fortunately, here in Australia, it's not hard to find peaceful and quiet places. Your video truly enhances my appreciation for the tranquility of nature. Thank you for sharing this!
For me the worst is a drone buzzing above while watching a sunset.
Shoot it down 👍
Amen. Flying drones over a natural area which other people are also enjoying is just really rude. Find a way to get your shots that doesn't cast a massive circle of horribly intrusive noise over the beautifully quiet area that we all appreciate!
Witnessed an older gentleman chew out someone for flying a drone at Moraine Lake in Banff. Obviously illegal in a national park on top of being kind of annoying in general
@@connorrothgeb There were drones flying at Reflection Lake in Utah. Imagine arriving to buzzing drones at the end of an 8 mile hike :(
Preach!
I *treasure* the moments where I've gotten to experience *any* level of quiet - during the early morning hours in camp (between airplanes), .or in a desert after a snowfall... As noisy as the wilderness is now, it's sooo much better than what you get in urban areas.
this is a masterpiece. Well done👏👏
Thank you for sharing and making us aware of the noise pollution. We definitely need to do something about this problem.
Thank you for bringing further attention to this important topic! We all have a shared individual, and group responsibility to protect the natural silence!
What a masterpiece. I absolutely enjoyed every second of this! Thanks for bringing awareness to this and for all of the work that went into this… especially all of that beautiful B-Roll! 😅
So engaging! I work in commercial construction, the constant noise is something I struggle with. Makes me seek out the quiet of nature. I’ll def be listening out for planes in the future….
A large owl was perched on a tree limb, in broad daylight, half asleep. When he saw me he got ready to fly away. I thought: Good, I will now hear an owl fly.
I became perfectly still and placed my attention on listening to the owl. The owl lifted himself from the branch in absolute perfect silence.
I had heard the sound of silence.
So true! I am always surprised when seeing one fly off, its as if someone pressed the mute button on reality for a second :D
Wings engineered by nature to be perfectly stealthy...
You are great! Thanks for all that you do. 😊
Dude. One of the best RUclips videos I've seen. I love that you're covering aspects of the outdoor experience that not everyone on RUclips does. Thank you for the way you present the issues, the data you provide, and the openness with which you explore the issue. I spend a lot of time in quiet places but have to admit I've purposefully gotten perturbed by road noise or airplanes.
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I hope to make more videos like this.
A highly significant issue for discussion and for generating more awareness. Excellent episode.
This is one of the reasons I love winter. I spent five days hiking and climbing across the English Lake District this winter and over three of those days I only saw five people.
This time of year however is surprisingly hard to come across.
The best thing about the first lockdown here in the UK was the total absence of car and plane noise. The silence was glorious.
This is an issue Ive been concerned about for many years. One of the primary reasons I backpack is to find the silence. As you clearly demonstrated, its sadly becoming impossible to find. BUT... In those rare moments I find it, I can literally feel my mind and body relax. I hope the we will awake to the need to protect at least some of these spaces before its too late. Thank you for hard work bringing this issue to light for others to contemplate.
There are only a few places left that I'd even consider going hiking anymore exactly because of the aircraft noise which is almost constant most other places.
Psalm 65:1 says " Silence is praise to you oh God." I think establishing truly quite places is thus, very important. I wholly endorse this mission. Thank you for raising awareness. I've been in some truly quiet places in Idaho. It is very, very calming and restful for the soul.
Beautiful video! Please keep making more videos like this. The effort you put into this is incredible. If you ever visit Helsinki, there is the Kamppi Chapel in the heart of a bustling city that is known as the church of silence. It was an incredible experience to be in a noisy city and step off a busy street and be in a completely quiet place. Would love if some sponsors could send you to places around the world to continue this amazing quest!
I watch quite a few hiking videos but this was easily the most thought-provoking in a long time. As a geologist and geographer who spends a lot of time outdoors, I've noticed that for the last 50 years, the places I hike, hunt, and camp are always "cultural landscapes". There is always a fenceline, a power pole, a road or trail, or a jet contrail somewhere in the viewscape to remind me of the pervasive influence of humans on our world. Now I'll be listening too.
The same for people. I also started backpacking 50 years ago. Hiking for a week and sometimes more without seeing another soul was common if you picked even somewhat remote hikes. Today, it is very difficult to go more than a day or maybe two without seeing another person or a small group.
I would imagine you’d find some places up in Alaska that are incredibly quiet and experience very little traffic of any sort
From a guy who lives in Alaska I can say that this is true. Cars and trucks are pretty easy to get away from. Like he said the airplanes are the hardest part. However I'm in a spot in Alaska that has a population of 2000 people and we get one airplane in and out a week. It's pretty quiet once you get off the highway.
I love when the power goes out and you feel an energy change. there was something I always loved about it.
Top tier production right here. Intriguing and inspiring. I'm going to find some silence this summer. Thanks for showing me the way.
I’m a pilot and a backpacker. Two thumbs up. Fully support this.
A thoughtful essay on seeking the sounds of silence in the wild. Many thanks for taking us to such extraordinarily lovely spaces. On a lighter note, you might chuckle that, as you lay in your tent in the Boundary Waters and observed that "Something interesting just happened . . .", RUclips immediately interrupted my viewing with a commercial that began "The man with raging hemorrhoids enters the room." Hard to get that unfortunate juxtaposition out of my head . . .
That was more interesting than what happened to me 😂
Top tier video! Love your level of commitment to practically travel the entire country just to find peace and quiet.
I get so frustrated with videos that talk about backpacking gear and it is automatically assumed you must have podcasts or music available instantly and constantly. I truly believe that PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF SILENCE because they would have to live with their own thoughts. Pure nature sights and sounds are the reason I went backpacking. Thankfully it was a time before cell phones, and the idea of music out there...we just listened to water and birds and trees 'breathing' .
I loved watching this video. Thank you for putting so much effort into this project and taking us along for the ride
Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing work Steven! Can really tell how much effort you put into editing, shooting, researching this video 👌
Thank you. And thank you for sharing on your community tab. Unfortunately it is underperforming my other videos by a long shot.
@@MyLifeOutdoors prob one of my fav videos you've done so far 🙌views be damned!
Let the other videos support your passions. Thx for the hard work!
As long we can appreciate any silence that affords us is grateful.
I live in a town in the high desert of Southern California just north of Ontario airport. Airplanes fly over to approach Ontario.
One night few years ago about 2am I could not sleep so went outside, put my lawn chair in middle of my property and waited. It took about 10 min for no cars going down the 2 lane road, no dogs barking at shadows or coyotes howling, and all other desert noises to stop. For approximately 1 minute I had complete silence and heard the gentle wind. Perfect. Then the dogs bark…
I've hiked in SBNF, constantly hear planes
Back in 2010, when that volcano erupted in Iceland, forcing the air trafic to stop, we were having lunch outside on sunday and... something was wrong. It took us quite a long time to figure out what it was : there were no airplaines over our heads. The usual drone wouldn't be heard. It was _so_ peaceful.
This is a wonderful video and needs to be discussed about the true quietness of natural spaces. I’ll never forget winter hiking in Upstate New York, it was softly snowing, no wind, no cars, no planes, no birds. I occasionally would hear a tree give and creak. But, when I stopped and listened. The only thing I could hear was my breath and heart pounding in my chest. Feeling the cold of winter and the blood pumping in my body. I looked up at the sun shining god-rays through the trees. So serene, peaceful and quiet. It was so beautiful, that my full body was overwhelmed with goosebumps and tears filled my eyes. The most purest natural moment of nature I’ve ever experienced.
I love to enjoy the silence in the nature, unfortunately very very difficult to find it due to the airplanes traffic everywhere.
So maybe the caving/speleology will be the only activity that can take us to enjoy a really completely quiet environment.
But yes, the air traffic it's insane and they should protect some areas from that.
Congratulations for this amazing content, I really liked it.
Regards from Spain
Man, tell me about it... I'm glad you've brought this up - I'm a sound engineer / recordist and recently was trying to get some forest / rural recordings in the South East UK and it's pretty much impossible, between planes and distant highway / motorway noise. Ironically the quietest place I can find is my studio in the middle of a city! I have longterm plans to do some thru-hiking and recording in the US and was wondering about noise pollution; I guess it's a problem everywhere then unless I go to one of these Wilderness Quiet Park regions.. But yep, the paradox.. to get there, you end up contributing to the issue...
How soundproof is your studio...does it completely block helicopter noise and vibration?
Yes, I don't know the stats, but it's a floating room, so only maintenance work on areas directly adjacent and connected to the core of the studio structure can pass through :)@@mountains1233
Don't give up. You will eventually find it. Caves might be interesting for babbling water. Mountain ridges in the wind, and if you go far enough from society you will find what you seek.
Thank you so much for the work that went into this video! This is definitely my favorite yet.
Thanks. I’m Glad you enjoyed it!
Come to norway and you'll find many places with little to no man made noises. I generally never hear anything when i hike from my parents place. It's about a 5 minute drive to the forest and goes all the way to sweden. I'm educated sound designer and fellow hiker myself. This video hit home and it saddens me greatly that it's such a big issue over there. Here we treat nature quite sacredly. It's a big part of our country and we try to leave it as untouched as possible. We obviously have less air traffic here as well. Will never take it for granted. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
How incredibly sad, the impact we have on the natural environment. Excellent video, excellent content. Thank you🙏
This is my favoirite video you've made. I find artificial noise really really annoying, especially road noise but also planes. Thanks for highlightingh this problem
I've hiked and backpacked all over the country, and I've only got to experience true and total silence a few times. When it happens, it's actually pretty erie and makes your hair stand up. The last time I felt it, I was traveling the "loneliest road" in Nevada, camping for days in the area. I made it to my spot at daylight, and once night hit and I was ready to go to sleep, it happened abruptly. ZERO SOUND. I honestly started freaking out. I kept having to tap my ears to not go crazy and i started seeing things off in the distance in the desert. Whether it was real or hallucinations, I'll never know, but the lack of sound that night made me so afraid. It was like a primal, instinctual fear. I had extreme trouble falling asleep because of it
This is such an interesting video. Love how this guy thinks and curious he is!
Your quest is understandable. The silence in the days following 9/11 was incredible. The complete halt in commercial air travel brought the noise level down noticeably, with punctuation added by the startling passes of military jets on patrol.
It is very difficult to find spaces where there is no noise, especially from airplanes. I can regularly find spots without ground or water vehicle noise, but air vehicles make their mark on the soundscape on at least an irregular basis a couple of times a day. But that minimal noise intrusion reminds us that the world is filled with quieter sounds and is very rarely truly silent. Even on the quietest, most still days we can hear the rustle of leaves and even the popping of cones dropping from the trees, and the birds and tiny mammals feeding for energy to build their next generation. Thanks for this moment of quiet contemplation, the garbage truck outside the house seems extremely loud right now 😂
Your comment hit home for me. I worked near Dorval airport in Montréal, under a direct flight path for landing. On 9/11, so many planes were diverted and landed here. It was deafening for a few hours, but the following 48 hours were kinda eerie because of how quiet it was.
During Covid, when travel here in Scotland was by and large restricted to your local area, one of the most striking things I noticed was how quiet and empty the skies were. I live between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with flight paths for both airports in the vicinity, so it was immediately apparent just how much air traffic there was and how much we had become accustomed to their presence. I do find that in many areas of Scotland we can be far enough from roads that we can obtain that "natural silence", and where planes may be visible, but at such a height as to be out of audible range.
Steven, loved this one, thank you. Even if it’s not 15 minutes, those moments of natural silence are a big part of what calls me to the wilds.
MAKE MORE DOCUMENTARIES STYLE VIDEOS LIKE THIS!! I know this is necessarily a documentary but they style reminds me of it and it’s so interesting
Oh holy cow why am I JUST NOW finding your channel?!?! Absolutely love your videos and thoughts. I'm hooked!!! 🥰❤
Thank you for this. The result justifies what was obviously a huge effort. For my part, although I knew silence was going the way of dark skies, I was not aware of Quiet Parks International’s worthy efforts.
Don't worry about ruining it for me, I have noticed this when out in the wilderness. Thanks for sharing something we can do to protect the quiet.
I worked at a job site in Las Vegas that was somewhere in the flight path where all those Grand Canyon helicopter tours are flying in/out of. At one point in the day, that helicopter noise is almost constant. If it wasn't that, it was a constant noise of playing music. Vegas is one of the loudest places I've been to.
Haha. I’m sure. I have been in the GC when a helicopter landed near Phantom Ranch. It was the park service and not a tour, but still.
I Did a 3 night backpack trip into the grand canyon; after one day I was sick (and tired) of the sound of helicopters.
I think this is my favorite episode yet. Thank you for bringing attention to such an important subject! This was an Awesome Video!! People forget how beautiful silence is.
This is a phenomenal video, and so needed to bring conscious awareness to this issue. Human-generated noise pollution is often connected to climate change, too, with Air Traffic contributing massive amount of CO2 to our air.
Interesting point....thanks!
Yeah, this is another thing I thought of. I've been to mountain wildernesses and seen the shrunken state of the glaciers there, and thought to myself "wait a minute, how much jet fuel and gasoline was burned so that I could see this sad sight?" Even the things we do to try to escape to unspoiled nature contribute in small ways to its destruction. We really need to find ways to travel more sustainably, or future generations won't have the same places to escape to.
My newest prophet. WHAT A GREAT VIDEO!!! Thank you for putting this together. When my grandson was just a young toddler, in only a diaper, he was climbing the stairs, by himself. “Where ya going, Gabe”, we asked. “I just need a little peace and quiet”, he said.
I hope Gabe gets to experience true natural silence someday. Thanks for watching.
Loved this video & I am so glad you made it!
I suffer from not being able to filter out human made noises, I seem to hear everything at the same time. When I try to explain how it affects me mentally, (it also affected my learning growing up) most people dont understand. But not here on this thread 💚
For me, human noise has become much worse post-pandemic, the world suddenly became really loud again, And it angers me. I try to manage my feelings by submersing myself in nature as much as possible, this video shows how difficult it is to escape it.
I honestly felt like i was going to have a breakdown when the world started to move again. I have in the past lost my sh@# whilst out hiking because of human made noises, ending up screaming at unseen people, yelling to them to shut the hell up. I feel ashamed of my behaviour & have it back under control (most of the time).
I live in the UK, the midlands & have difficulty finding natures peace & quiet, restricted mostly because of finances & commitments. The UK is such a tiny, but loud place. 😶😵💫
Sorry for the rambling, stay happy & safe out on the trails 💚🏕
Big bend NP was already on my bucket list of places to backpack. Thank you for confirming that! 👍
Great video. Appreciate all the time put into this. I went on a trip and while the views were great, there was a gun range nearby going off during the day and then drag racing at night from a nearby highway. All while jets were flying over. I was solo and there was absolutely nobody around me at the time but it was still one of my worst trips.
Thank you for this video and for bringing attention on this topic! We have a big big problem of sound pollution and to me it seams as if this is a very underrated problem. I also experienced total silence on top of a mountain in the Karvendel Mountains in the austrian alps and it was and will ever be an unforgetable experience I told and will tell so many people about.
This is an important issue. I am 74 and have lost a great deal of my hearing, so finding quiet is easy for me - i just take my hearing aides out. After talking with audiologists,it is clear that many people are unintentionally destroying their hearing. Just one rock concert can do significant damage. My hearing was probably destroyed by chain saws. I was careless and uninformed about exposing myself to loud noise. I live in Maine and Arizona. Arizona has planes all over the place, but Maine is not under many flight paths so I notice a significant difference.
Absolutely great video! And a real eye opener too for somebody like me who comes from Finland and is used to experiencing quiet regularly. America is very, very loud and disruptive - especially in everyday places.
What an amazing video, loved it
Thank you for this untypical and honest video
I was once hiking in a forest in Victoria, Australia. Beautiful place, full of tall ferns, very tall eucalyptus trees, and lots of bird calls. The trail was narrow and not much else around. No other trails or campsites. Every now and then, I could hear murmurs in the near distance, so I expected to run into another group of hikers. Oddly, I never did. This puzzled me. Later I found out it was Lyrebirds, which were mimicking ‘human noises’. These birds have been known to mimic chainsaws, car alarms, even camera sounds, and yes, people too. I had spotted a few lyrebirds back at camp where I noticed them making kookaburra, magpie, and other bird calls, one right after the other. It was amazing, couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.
I love the expression Peace and Quiet....
If only in this World, occasionally?
I've always hated hearing anthropic noises in wild areas. Most of the places I visited always had the noises of planes, cars, some guy using a chainsaw, barking of dogs...
As you said, it's like these sounds disconnect us from our experience of Nature.
Makes me glad and thankful being able to hike in my 3rd world wilderness. For now. I'm less excited to hike in the US now.
It is very rare to be able to experience absolute silence anywhere. If it does occur, many folk find the silence disturbing because they're so used to some type of background noise no matter how subtle.
This video is amazing. I wish these things went viral and more of the world thought about these things.
I would guess people “go crazy” in a quiet room is; they are at the mercy of their own thoughts. Also have heard, waterfronts (lakes, rivers, oceans) offer a soothing/calming sensation that help you relax. Which is probably why property next to them is overpriced. (In theory.) Thank you for the post! Really enjoyed this video!
Yea i would definitely go crazy in a quiet room. Not only do I have trouble maintaining control over my thoughts in regular moments but when it’s quiet it’s so much worse I’ve noticed, so I play white noise to fall asleep for that reason. If my normal room at night is too quiet for me to feel sane, a million dollar quiet room would probably kill me lmao. Not to mention the tinnitus I get when it’s really quiet.
Thank you for brining this issue to light!
The most annoying sound for me in the mountains or desert is not the aircraft overhead or a loud motorcycle on a distant highway but rather the sounds of people shouting or partying... Now, it seems, you can't even go into the forest to get away from people or even the sounds of people... Sigh... 😕
This is true. The last time I was in the Hoh rainforest (the time before this) there was a group camped not far from us that kept yelling into the night. I don’t even think they knew we were there…but it was really annoying
@@MyLifeOutdoors Oh absolutely, I had a camp late last summer. Mind you it was a dispersed camp just off of a relatively busy forest road and it was not the road, for the most part, that was the problem. The camp sites were only 50 to 100 yards apart.
My neighbors to my east and west I could easily see through the trees.. The camp to my east went about their business all through the day, evening and night and I never hear a sound from them, however, the camp to the west of mine was non stop noise from the time they pulled in till the wee hours of the night..
Now keep in mind that the camp to my east was the closest and as quiet as can be expected. The other camp, at least twice the distance away, was just the opposite...
I did not check the noisy camp after they left but I have no doubt that they did not abide by LNT.
Great video MLO and an awesome topic.
I’m going to add use of noisy gas generators people bring for conveniences they should have left behind while they’re out enjoying nature w a noisy boondock.
@@anninwhack1998 I Agree !
We encountered this partying late into the night in the backcountry of Algonquin Park in Ontario a few years ago.
No roads, the only way in is canoes and portages.
You would think that would weed out most party animals?
And you'd think those that made that effort to get there, would value that quiet and remoteness as part of that experience.
Apparently not!
Facts. Commenting to help spread this video. RUclips Gods please blessed this with the sacred algorithm!
The Olympics are different because there's virtually zero air traffic going over the top. Definitely one of the quietest places out there. EDIT: Made that comment before your air traffic segment. Glad you touched on it! EDIT 2: YESSS! The Hoh is the best! I was in Enchanted Valley last weekend (saw @hungryhiker!).
Love the Olympic National Park and Hoh!
Love it! You never really take into account All the things that make noise. Although not your standard content, I really appreciate this one quite a bit.
Thanks so much for going to three epic places to prove your point.
I was just in the boundary waters and experienced that silence the expert talked about. It was magical.
This is my favorite video of yours! It’s such an important topic.
To me the worst thing is people listening to music or talking on speakerphone. Do that at home, don’t disturb other people!