I was just out plowing snow and wind is blowing pretty good. When I turned off the 4 wheeler I could hear the wind blowing through the neighbors pines. Whenever I hear that it brings me back to a bowl in Bighorn mountains of Wyoming. Shot at the the biggest Muley I've ever see there, but its a place I can go with utter silence except for the wind through the pines and smell the sap. Anyone else have a place like this to go in their mind during these long days of winter?
Oglala National Grasslands in Nebraska goat and Mulie hunting. It is so quiet and empty but the view at night is amazing.
Nigel01 I live at the base of those beautiful Bighorn Mountains which you speak of and without reservation I can agree with you whole heartedly. I will never leave this place and every spring her black bears call to me and Septembers autumn air draws me into her elky places. It is heaven!
At the place I hunt I have a spot I call the Cathedral. I don't know what its is exactly, but when the sun breaks over the eastern horizon, and floods through the tree trunks, it seems to bend the light when the light hits the trees just right. It makes me feel like I am in a church with stained glass windows. When I hunt on Sunday mornings I will usually head to this spot. hard to explain how it looks, but it always makes me bow my head. I always get a very peaceful feeling and everything is right with the world. Lasts about 15 minutes, then the woods return to their normal light.
Chris Rice
Love that description Rice. Seems like a great place to hunt.
Most peaceful/serene place you hunt, yeah sure, in New Jersey ? :dunno: all I could do is wish.
There are a few places in the Adirondack Mountains in NY that are my favorites. Danny's watch. The finger. The Marble. Stone Watch. Hopefully Cedar River this fall where I have camped with my family before I was a teenager. Pretty much any where up there... Ahhh, I can't wait for October :)
There is a stand on my small place that ovelooks a creek bottom in a hardwood forest. Especially in fall, when the leaves are turning and the woods get that special fragrance of autumn, I find it my favorite palce to be . It is beautiful, and I see quite a number of deer there. It is very peaceful there. The only detraction is that I still can hear highway sounds from there, but that is unavoidable on my place.
It was a place that I called "The Farm" in the piedmont of NC....was, because the owners kids just had it clear cut.....killed seven bucks out of the same tree,at the same creek crossing....seven in seven years........I just kind'a teared up because it is now gone......well, at least I got memories.....
There is a ridge in Bath Co., VA on National Forest. The name of the mountain is Little Piney. A buddy and I have nicknamed the area "White Oak Flats".
There is no sound from vehicle traffic. No airports close. No parks or public gathering areas within earshot. It is one of my favorite places to watch the world come to life on a frosty morning.
Ken
A fair distance into a Cedar swamp near the headwaters of the White River here in Mich.
I think the most beautiful place I have hunted is around Fair Field Bay Arkansas. Large rock bluffs, can see for miles up the little Red River when you are on the top side. Caves and rock overhangs. Hard to go anywhere without finding Arrowheads, if your looking anyway. I grew up in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, so I have seen some pretty incredible places, but for me nothing touches North Central Arkansas. When i am on those bluffs, I always feel like I have some ancient brothers there with me.
I have several, but there is a mountain range in central Wyoming that is wild and rugged; not even all that 'pretty', but has a quality of wildness about it that is about as close to pristine as anyplace in the lower 48. When I am fortunate enough to roam that place, I feel like no one else has ever set foot there.
Where Lost creek meets the County line Brook 4 miles into the Siamese Wilderness Area in the Adirondack Mt.s of New York. Sat there one day and had lunch at 15 degrees below zero, just amazing!
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The Indian Mounds on the Mobile Tennsaw River Delta, in Baldwin Co. Alabama. I can go there and feel at one with the "Old Ones" that lived there in the past. If you are real still you can hear the wind and wonder if its them comming back.
The next place is central to my Bowhunting on the
Tombigbee River, Alabama. There are a few places to go and smell the river and the swamp, feel the peace.
I always feel better when I'm there. Anywhere in the woods works for me.
Johnny/JAG
Ocmulgee river bottoms of south Ga. Water oaks as big as cars, black water sloughs, snakes and palmetto flats. So quite and peaceful, I sleep as much as I hunt sometimes.
Went camping alone in the Wieminuche Wilderness quite a few years back. It was the most breathtaking place I have ever seen. Prettier than Alaska. I saw one person in 4 days. Caught brook trout, had 2 Shiras Moose come drink in the same pool I was fishing in, saw mule deer, elk and bighorn sheep. Man that place was made by God Almighty!!
Any where around here...Yukon!!
It's on a little piece of ground overlooking the elkhorn river here in Nebraska. Cottonwood trees mixed with honey locust. It is an absolute breathtaking experience to watch the sunset here! Great post
I am not going to tell where my favorite place is because if I do someone else will go there too.
I would say along the edge of the Edisto river in the river bottoms and in the small areas between the swamp and fields. Nothing like sitting in those woods and watching the day break as a gobbler breaks the silence. I took many a naps under those cypress and oaks mid morning! Bamberg,Colston,Branchville,Ehrhardt and Hampton area love it.
Bald Twins Hill, Ft. Sill OK. Granted, the sound of 155m arty in the distance has become normal to me.
There's no place like Home, There's no place like Home. Kansas the land of AH"S
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Just some property within walking distance of the house. Been going there for 40 plus yrs.
Down amoungst the water oak and cypress trees, river canes and palmettos, where the creek makes a big double bend, watching the wood ducks swim back and forth as I hunt.
My family has a bit of land in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a few miles from Munuscong Lake. Most of it is forested with cedar and pine, and there's a small ridge that runs along it that overlooks a hay field. I could sit on that ridge and watch the sun set every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. It's also ideal for hunting--white tail tend to break from the forest and follow the ridge line below me. Set up behind a bush, and you have a natural blind.
Schell mountain range in Nevada. Deer, elk, lions and nobody near the top. All else are in the lowlands. From the top you can see horizons miles away, you feel like jets overhead could be touched, the air has never touched another human nostril and ears can relax as there is nothing necessary to hear. The ancient ones guide us via spirit up there.you oughta try it!
For me it's the old Georga Pacific Lumber property between Fort Bragg and Willits on the Calif. North Coast.
Beautiful country filled with redwoods and ferns. I can roam for days and not hear anything but nature. At one time it was unusual to see anyone in there. Now a days you have to be careful of the Mexican Cartels growing marajuana. Those crazy buggers will even shoot at the land owners
Thanks to all for sharing their special places. I have another place closer to home here in Minnesota, my mom and dads little hunting property. I sat a stand overlooking a willow swamp one morning this past November. Gun season was over and I guess I just wanted to see if anything was still alive. I didn't even have a bow with me cause I'd punched my tag earlier in the season. The first thing I like to do after buckling in, is lean my head back against the tree and stare up through the branches at the stars and the moon. The stand faces the east and the sun rise was amazing, I couldn't help but to raise my arms to the sky and thank God for this place and moment in time. I ended up seeing a nice eight point poking around for a doe and a decent year and half old buck harassing a couple of fawns around my stand.
marylands eastern shore
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I like that 2 hours away from Mesa you can be in the
Woods . Or out the back door you have this .
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I've a spot in NW Maine where I hunt and flyfish that is just about as perfect as it can be. I camp on a steam that holds good brook trout, and if you follow it down far enough, it empties into one of my favorite fly fisihing rivers. There are deer, moose, bear, partridge, hare out there, too, and all the times I've been there, day trips or overnighters, I've never seen another person there, except for the times my hunting and fly fishing buddy comes with me. I dream of this spot in the off-season and so look forward to getting back.
Jeff
Wow, great thought you had while plowing snow Chris... I've enjoyed the thoughtful wanderings :)
I like this one!
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Short walk from my backyard.So quiet you can hear a shrew scrabbling in the duff.
Love the Medicine Bow Nat Forest in Wyoming.
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All great places! I for me there's a couple of places the family cabin in Pennsylvania where I can walk out a few hundred yards on a cool spring morning and perch myself up on the big boulders where I listen for turkeys and take in the woods waking up. The second is a price of public hunting ground in the smoky hills of Kansas I always make it a point to climb to the top of the bluffs and watch the shadows of the clouds rolling across the hills
I have a favorite stand in an unremarkable place. It is 17' up a cedar tree in a fenceline separating a woodlot from small old fields interspersed with smaller woodlots. I can practically walk to this spot, about 700 yards from where I park my truck in my sleep.
In one direction, pictured below I can see a very long ways.
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My 5 acre woods. With a 15 min. Walk I can get away from everything and know I will not run into anyone else. Farm and woods have been in the family for over a 100 yrs. Never thought a person could have so many great hunting memories on 5 acres. :)
When I'm at camp it's right outside the door, when I'm home I have to drive 5 or 10 minutes. Woods are every where.
There is a beaver pond down in the bottom on the left that can't be seen until you are near it. I love that patch of woods and feel at home there. It may not look too spectacular, but I have some fond memories in that place. One night coyotes were howling on all the ridges around me as dark set in. Cool and eerie feeling all the same... Never saw a deer that day, but it was cold, snowy and quiet. I was all alone and it was fun to see the coyote tracks crossing my path in the deep snow as I walked back out that night.
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Yep..Yosemite Valley 1972...I visit it everyday.
Way back in the Luther Swamp near our cabin, especially in the evening. It's a typical northern MI cedar swamp - beautiful. Especially nice knowing that quite often when I do get back, the cabin will be warm and my wife and grandkids will be there to ask, "Did you catch anything Papa?" :)
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We own 250 acres in a beautiful rural setting in Pictou Co., Nova Scotia. Our old farm house is in the inside corner of a long series of fields belonging to us and our neighbours. Top of the hill is a large dairy farm.
Deer are right in the yard, but off limits. I hunt our land only as all the opportunities I need are here. Ours is a working woodlot, so I spend a lot of days on our land and most places have some sort of "hold" on me.
Several Doe groups live here and we have good genetics and nutrition for nice big bucks.
The Fall is pretty magical here.
I realy enjoyed the responses here. Believe it or not I have such a place on a family farm located in a mountainous area less than three hours from NYC. Surrounded by State
Forest lands it does recieve hunting presure during deer rifle season but otherwise hours can go by without hearing a vehicle, a dog barking or a chain saw. For over 60 years I have been fortunate to spend my happiest early mornings,bow in hand watching the sun rise on those rugged, unspoiled moutains.