[seawallrunner]

If you can’t get to a national park this weekend, let its sounds come to you. Beautiful. https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/photosmultimedia/sounds-ambient-soundscapes.htm

[seawallrunner]

While you are on the NPS site, mouse around. There are other parks (aside from Rocky Mountain, above) that also offer soundscapes. For example, Yellowstone.

[Kascadia]

When I reach end stage decrepitude, listening to "soundscape" recordings is part of the plan for continuing joy.

[seawallrunner]

I place a lot of faith in VR technology, I see a use case for “virtual parks” using real video captured by photographers and artists. When I reach end state decrepitude I’ll be the little old lady at the old folks home with my Oculus glasses, watching a sunset by Lake Ann with the glimmering waves catching the dying sunlight.

[Cyclopath]

I'm playing one of these at home right now while I work on photos from a hike. My cats are roaming the apartment trying to find the bird. One of them realized it's coming from my phone. The look of disappointment, not just that he wasn't going to catch a bird, but also in me.

[osprey]

Here's the website for Jacob Job who recorded the Rocky Mountain soundscapes - lots more to explore here: https://www.jacobrjob.com/

[Anne Elk]

This is a good thread to also mention the NW's own Gordon Hempton, The Soundtracker. After you check out his sound offerings there, check out his project: One Square Inch. There's also his book. "Olympic National Park was chosen for One Square Inch because it has a diverse natural soundscape combined with substantial periods of natural quiet. Unlike other national parks, such as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon or Hawaii Volcanoes, air tourism is undeveloped and roads do not divide park lands. Because there are few noise intrusions in the backcountry wilderness, noise sources are easier to identify at Olympic than at other parks. The variety of natural soundscapes presented by different habitat types such as alpine glaciers, rain forests, lakes and streams, and wilderness beach provide meaningful examples of soundscape beauty. When a noise intrusion has occurred at One Square Inch and the responsible party is asked to quiet down, a sample of the natural soundscape of Olympic Park is provided on audio CD. The audio CD ends with a noise intrusion, making it easy to understand that noise causes real destruction of the park experience. The need for corrective action is obvious. ... One Square Inch of Silence is in danger, unprotected by policies of the National Park Service, or supported by adequate laws. Our hope is that by listening to natural silence, it will help people to become true listeners to their environment, and help us protect one of the most important and endangered resources on the planet, silence." It used to be that commercial airlines routed their flights north away from ONP; I doubt that's still true. And Hempton's project was begun long before NAS Whidbey began their training exercises involving radar targets in ONF, noise which greatly affects the beaches. Has anyone who's been up the Hoh trail to Olympus meadows noticed the noise reaching that far?