When my family moved to Charlotte, NC, from the North Shore of Oahu, HI as a middle schooler... I felt I'd lose the connection to nature I felt on the reef. The Appalachian mountains changed my mind and shaped my adolescence. Your videos capture the history, beauty, and awe that I hold dear. Thank you. And if you want a trail buddy in Pisgah or elsewhere one day, let me know!
I was born and raised in the heart of the Appalachians. I spent my childhood running through the hills and valleys, often ranging miles from my home, drinking from streams and carrying my trusty .22 pistol and snakebite kit. One of my favorite things to do was climb to the top of the highest hemlock tree I could find on a windy day, and sit at the top while the tree swayed back and forth, enjoying the view. It's funny how, when you've lived in a place your entire life, you don't appreciate the beauty of it as you should. A video like this where the landscape is framed by the loving eye of another helps me appreciate it more in retrospect.
Not going to lie, I'm bit jealous of you guys who get to live in Appalachians. Certainly it's bit of a shame about the lodging and invasive species, but man, those hills and temperate forests are just amazing. We've only got one small forest that's atleast somewhat similar in it's flora.
I live in this area. Marble NC. The mountain i live on, the trail of tears passed directly through. The creek has had some major native american finds like pottery, tools, etc. Its a wonderful place. I just please wish that you have a way to protect yourself. Ive encountered many a threat out here. Animal and man. Be careful and thank you for the absolute gorgeous videos of mine(and your) backyard!
@IdidntAskuAnything no specifics. I personally havnt heard anything to weird. Maybe a big cat in the middle of the night. People say they will hear indian chants in the distance at night sometimes. My neighbor says he hears like tribal drums sometimes. Who knows tho 🤷♂️
I’m lucky enough to work outdoors right across the street from the national park and within view of a lot of the peaks he’s talking about! It’s the most incredible place and it’s so saddening to read stories of how close we brought the smoky mountains to an irreversible state, and also the tragic history of the natives being forced out of the area by settlers. It’s unfair, but the most we can do now is learn from past mistakes and truly appreciate the fact that we still have the Appalachian forest today.
I havent seen your channel before this popped up in my feed today. What a treat and an honor! Such a beautiful, culturally rich and historically dense video essay. I can hardly believe it was just 20 minutes; it covered more breadth and depth than some full length documentaries. Happy to subscribe. PS. Someone below says you are just 16yo???? If this is what you want to continue to do, in a decade you'll be an award winning documentary filmmaker. World class.
I grew up in the southern reaches of the PNW rainforest. A lot of this sounded familiar to me. Great video. Keep it up. Places like this are becoming harder and harder to reach.
The geography of the western parts of lower mid-Atlantic/ upper southern east coast states are a well kept secret. This region of the US is breathtaking and has a lot of cool stuff like this.
Western North Carolinian here. I'm I big fan of easy hikes with big rewards. Visitors of this region should check out Triple Falls, Linville Falls, Joyce Kilmer, and Bearwallow. Heard Graveyard Fields is cool too.
It seems you're remiss to not even mention the AT, and the ~2000 hikers who call this wilderness home for months, yet talk about following the footsteps of those who love this place
While I agree the human history is interesting here in Appalachia, Its not the humans that make it interesting at all. Just the very fact that these mountains are older than Saturn's rings themselves should be enough for people to be grateful and appreciate these mountains. Although some people will never care and just see it as a product to harvest from.
Fun fact! The Appalachian Mountains have the largest salamander diversity then anywhere else in the world with some estimates saying there are over 100 different species of salamanders. (Most are Endemic to the Appalachia region)
As a North Carolinian, I really appreciate you taking the time to cover the cultural, ecological, and geological history of Western NC. It truly is a special place with so many fascinating stories to tell, and I'm glad to see someone depict it with such passion. Keep up the great work!
The last bit of this video honestly made me emotional. I've lived in the Appalachian Mountains my entire life, I love it here, absolutely love it here. But I constantly have to battle with the fact that, it seems no one else really does. It seems almost consistently that I am the only person in my area that cares about these mountains, and maintaining the wild nature of them. Even in my own family, they constantly talk of wanting to level ground, and bring down trees older then the coal mines buried under these mountains, and its deeply upsetting. Thank you for this video, and hopefully bringing attention to the absolute beauty of our mountains, and *how worth it, it is, to protect and preserve them.
It's also worth mentioning that large areas of the Appalachia's were originally dominated by giant American chestnut trees that reached sizes similar to the Redwoods on the west coast, until chestnut blight was introduced from Asia in the early 1900's and wiped them out, leaving only small saplings surviving in the wild today. That and Chinese chestnuts which are adapted to resist the blight. You can find pictures of the old giant American chestnuts on google, they're amazing.
I always wonder, did no original Chestnut trees DNA survive? Can't scientists revive a modified chestnut tree which has majority American Chestnut DNA? I have seen those Old trees in pictures. Also I read somewhere that having Chestnut trees was an ecosystem in itself. Farmers will get nuts from them, it would be used to feed hogs. Wood will be used for construction, and so on.
@@learndesignwithdevyes there are still isolated individual trees. Also there is currently an effort to cross breed the American Chestnut with other blight resistant variants so it can be reintroduced back into the forests in greater numbers.
@@learndesignwithdev there are some small groves that persist as root systems, but can never grow up to the point that they can reproduce. eventually those will die out, too. there are some attempts to create hybrids with chestnuts from other parts of the world, and also genetically modified chestnut that has a resistance to the blight. we also used chestnuts as currency. we were and still are very poor in Southern Appalachia, and they became a way to afford goods like shoes.
There are two programs to revive the American Chestnut. One involves cross breeding and intercrossing American chestnut and Chinese chestnut and then selective breeding trees with desired properties. They have had limited success. The other program is taking a direct approach and has genetically modified American chestnut with the blight resistance genes from wheat. They have had limited success. We are still a long ways off of having an 99% American chestnut that will be blight resistant. We may NEVER have an American chestnut that will grow to the size and grandeur of those old trees.
Man those forest shots are so deeply green, a calming tone of it, with the sense of solitude and all the fog? This is one hell of a vibe, I could watch and rewatch this video a thousand times for the visuals alone!
There's definitely something very comforting about being in those woods. We don't have the tall peaks you see out west but the experience of being deep in the forest of southern Appalachia is unmatched.
@@gardeniagorgeous4232 I used to live near Boone NC and the air really does have a refreshing quality to it. That is, when it isn't 80% bugs by volume during the summer.
I live in the Upstate part of South Carolina and the regions in this video are not far from my home. I have been to Cherokee, NC and the Great Smokeys numerous times as well as driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a beautiful and peaceful drive. Not much traffic especially during the shoulder seasons. The BL Parkway could be closed a chunk of the year due to snow, so better check. Here in SC, we too glimpses of such beauty: Waterfalls, untold number of trees, ferns on the ground, black bear. It is paradise here and only the good 'yankees' are welcomed here!
i genuinely believe unless someone has lived around this region of appalachia or visited it, they couldn't even begin to comprehend the beauty that is this region of the world.
100% agree. As someone who has lived in Japan, the Redwoods, and many other beautiful places, the Appalachians are truly unique and hold a special place in my heart as an American.
Native Appalachian. We don't even realize it until we venture out of the mountains and it becomes GLARINGLY apparent that once you leave the Cumberland plateau, the scenery is radically different.
the thing that blows my mind the most is that not only are the mountains (obviously) older than the trees, the mountains are literally older than any trees that ever existed on the planet. the appalachian mountains are older than the idea of trees
That was always a huge draw for me living near them. Everything had a different feel, ancient yet also timeless. If you look up the geological history of Mount Mitchell and the surrounding Black Mountains, their original heights surpassed the Himalayas. They are for the most part rolling and pastoral now only because of time wearing them down to what we see today. Plus wherever you see the side of the mountains cut into for roads, you see rock that could not have any fossils, as it predates a lot of life.
There's something haunting about a cemetery reclaimed by mother nature. It feels like it symbolizes that even in death there will always be a chance for new life, a chance to regrow.
Makes me think about us as humans. Those in that graveyard laughed and cried, loved and hated. They experienced triumphs and defeats; had families… Who remembers their names now? Who will remember us? Someday that will be us: forgotten to time. Only the Lord will remember our names.
A RU-vidr going hard core with 4k video quality showing the stunning beauty of my backyard and unparalleled research on their videos. Truly you are a rare breed and your videos show that. Love everything about them because they are so well made, but also because the Appalachians are where I grew up and watching your videos make me feel like I am in the woods/mountains as a kid again experiencing them for the first time. Thank you for these trips!
You could literally make a month's long trip out of it! ..or more. There's so many places along the range to visit seeing as it crosses all the way from Georgia to Maine.
It's goregous!. If you want a more tourist friendly place (everyone's pretty nice along the mountains but for amenities and infrastructure) look up the Delaware water gap, also jim thrope in PA. It's stunning and I'm absolutely in love with this state.
*Oldest observable mountain range*... Not trying to be nitpicky... More so just some interesting geography trivia. The Oldest known mountain range is actually in Australia.... But what remains is buried underground so they can't even be called mountains anymore yet are still very much there... It's fascinating to think that someday the Appalachian Mountains will do the same and be reclaimed by the Earth's crust.
These videos on old rainforests are so important. Thank you so much for making them. I selfishly would love you to please visit more of the ones in Western Europe!
@@maxzeyyy I recall the Scotland one, and the Madeira one was excellent, I hadn’t forgotten that one :) (hence my phrasing of “more”) :) but I don’t recall any in Ireland and I personally am in the south west uk so am interested in that too.
In North Georgia, the Cohutta wilderness has huge hemlocks completely covered in Moss. The area where the Conasauga river headwaters are (the most diverse river in North America), it’s literally a jungle. I’ve never seen so many ferns in my life. Literally growing on trees.
@@Quantrills.Raiders If you like the AT in North Georgia, check out the BMT trail, it goes through the Cohutttas on the east side of them. You can add an extra trail and go to Jack's River falls, the largest waterfall by water volume in North Georgia.
As the person who wrote a lot of the wikipedia article the first minutes were based on, and made one of the maps featured in this video, I am SO HAPPY this region is getting more appreciation and visibility!
I once went to a music festival in an area called Deerfields, just outside of Asheville. It had a deciduous rainforest microclimate. It rained constantly and it maintained a comfy temperature in the mid 70 degree Fahrenheit range, despite it being late July. Walking through the trails was like walking through a dreamscape. I've never seen so many different shades of green, Everything was covered in moss and dripping with different types of ferns and multi-colored lichens. The ground was so deeply covered in moss that it felt like a carpet that you could comfortably fall asleep on if it wasn't so wet. Everything looked like some illustration out of a book of fairytales. It looked like the type of place where you would see fairies and gnomes hiding in the trees. Seeing so much life layered upon more life almost gave the whole area a feeling of sentience. I really want to go back there again sometime because it was truly a magical experience.
@@decrox13 Oh ok, thanks Mr. Trebek. I should have said Temperate Rainforest. Thank you for deeming me worthy enough to bestow me with a bit of your vest well of knowledge.
My family comes from the Cataloochee Valley in GSMNP. My great great grandfather, W.G.B. Messer, helped settle Little Cataloochee. There are graves of my ancestors in those mountains. Those rainforests are a long lost home to me. Granddaddy Messer sold his land for pennies on the dollar to the federal government and moved out of the park to Haywood county, NC (Maggie Valley). He always said that the federal government should’ve paid mountain folk more than they did for the land inside the park. Amazing history to me, this video brings makes me feel like I remember things I never experienced.
Omg yes, I mean of course there are cemeteries in these woods but that's something I never thought of and to see it reclaimed by nature was just breathtaking and sad because they have been forgotten.
Truly a love letter to the incredible environments on the east coast. Not as immediately dramatic as the new mountains out west but still absolutely incredible
There is a black shadowy thing that passed in front of the camera at 8:35 holy crap man they weren't playing when they said it was weird in the Appalachians lmao
Got familial roots in Appalachia, NC specifically. Because of that, something about those mountains just feels like home. Hiking in them with my boy scout troop, standing atop a lookout in autumn and seeing the orange and red leafs for miles in every direction, the deafening sounds of pure nature. It can be an isolated place, even a lonely one, but its some of the most beautiful scenery on earth
I have never stepped foot into Continental North America, but Aidan's videos are really inspiring and educational over the wilderness of the eastern US, as well as temperate rainforests. The history and landscape reminds me of the German Black Forest - though less wild, once full of settlements spreading far and wide (it still is), underwent a cycle of deforestation for agriculture and logging, and is since reforested - though plagued with monocultures.
Your videos are so special to me, I almost can’t quite describe it but it’s almost nostalgic and makes me want to explore. Thanks Aiden for making such high quality videos.
Wow you're right! I'm surprised he's so open about being in these mountain woods, I've been told by a lot of people that live in Appalachia that those woods have really strange things happening in them and strange creatures spotted
its insane growing up in appalachia and living here my whole life and seeing more and more people become enamored by it. definitely doesn't have the same charm it used to but im glad people love my home
As someone who has been in the Appalachia's and physically super close to some of the oldest forests and some of the only old growth temperate forests left, this moved me greatly. I've always shown great interest in wildlife and history, and just seeing the explanations that are very in depth while also being able to understand all of this and soak it all in, it really puts you into perspective just how influential these places are. Not just in recent history, but for the whole worlds history. The Appalachians are 480 million years old. They formed along side Pangea. It is so introspective to be able to go outside and hike up a super short hill, only for it to never have any fossils because it used to be taller than the Swiss Alps and no fossils have ever been able to form there. I've never wanted to leave these mountains and this just makes me want to stay more. There is TOO much to learn about this place, and ill be forever grateful to be from the Appalachians.
I grew up in this exact region, the mountains may seem small compared to Rockies but they've been eroding since before mammals walked on land. Theyre were once part of the same Pangean mountain range that the Scottish Highlands were part of. Thats why the terrain and climate can be so similar at times. Part of my family fled from the English influence in Scotland and settled in the mountains and we've been here ever since. Its a major part of my and many others identity, it not only shaped up but the region itself
This video is so amazing and I learned so much about an area that I'm not really too far from. I'm from Maryland so I visit the skii resorts in West Virginia one or two times but I didn't know the rest of the landscape looked like this! 3:25 is very helpful to understand how the plants got here from Canada and that was new to me because I didn't know plants also moved locations.
If you love these N.C. mountains, this land, if you plan to visit or move, please keep in mind that the masses of folks and big businesses that have come here for the nature and cheaper living, are destroying the very things they came for. Locals that have lived here our entire lives can't hardly afford their homes any more. My family has lived in North Carolina for centuries and I don't recognize many of the places I've lived my entire life. I love my home, my culture, and my community. Please be part of our community, respect our culture and our people, stand up to big business ruining our lands and waterways, and become a true North Carolinian. If you love North Carolina, help us protect our beautiful state from further damage. Let's move into the future together in a respectful and collaborative way.
Finally got the free time to actually watch and enjoy this piece of art. Had no idea you were from this area too, though to be fair I've only had a chance to watch a couple of your vids prior to this. Phenomenal work, my dude. I'm 40 as of this year, and have spent about 36 of those years in the area, mostly between Buncombe, Haywood, Transylvania and Henderson Counties. I grew up running the rigelines of the Pisgah National Forest, walking the old logging roads on the slopes of Pisgah itself, rockhopping the many forks of streams and rivers that run down roads like 276, 215, and my home of 151. My family has been in various parts of NC since 1696. I celebrated my 21st birthday on the top of Mt. Mitchell, wrecked my first car on The Blue Ridge Parkway, scattered my father's ashes on Pisgah, watched the 2017 solar eclipse from the top of Devil's Courthouse, camped deep in the Yellow Gap area for a month when covid hit, dodging park rangers and the virus both. I've left twice, and come back in less than 2 years each time due to homesickness. The only negative emotions I ever feel about this area are either due to some of the modern people here being so stuck behind the social/political times, and the remorse of knowing that my own blood ancestors more than likely played their part in pushing the natives out. All that is just to say that you've done a phenomenal job capturing the beauty, the history, the connection between the land and the people that appreciate it. And I truly love this vid essay for that. I'm really glad the algorithm finally introduced me to your content just in time to catch this. Thank you again. After a pretty lousy couple of weeks, I needed a calming voice to remind me why I keep going at my age with nothing else to show for it. It's the beauty of the forest, of my home. Plain and simple. I'm not a religious or spiritual man, but it's hard not to feel something mystical in these woods, especially when you get off the beaten path and find somewhere that signs of human activity are scarce. I think it's getting close to time to take another month off from my societal duties, tie some traps, and disappear deep into the forest once more time, just to feel again.
I too am always busy and always have something to do but I like to play these videos in the background of whatever I'm doing just to hear his voice is so calming and then when I do get a glimpse it's absolutely stunning video
As a Person who lives next to mount Mitchel in the temperate rainforest thank you for making this vid! 🔥 people don’t get to see how beautiful this place is much so thanks for sharing it! These mountains are older then Saturns rings and need some respect 😔✊
As an Indian historian I'm impressed by the quality of that section of this video! Most discussions of east coast Indians just either pretend everyone disappeared from "disease" or ignores that and jumps straight to accusations of race faking and that whole topic. Speaking specifically on how Indian populations did not "shrink" but were pushed back by expansion from colonizers is a refreshingly accurate description compared to the norm of describing white settlers as expanding into a void left behind by Indians who died on their own, and I thank you for it. There's basically no actual historical evidence for communicable disease playing any significant role in the destruction of east coast Indian communities. Indian communities were forced out or destroyed by settler violence, either directly or indirectly (such as killing off all the game in an area, deforesting, poisoning water supplies with industrial runoff and sewage, etc). They even tried germ warfare with the smallpox blankets on multiple occasions, although it always resulted in failure (Indian medical standards tended to be superior to the European standards of the 18th century thanks to having better ideas of how to safely treat the sick compared to people who still believed in miasma theory). There's like one diary of some white guy claiming to have come across an empty Indian town and going "oh I guess they all died of smallpox!", and that's it. There's a ton of documentation about Indians dying from infected wounds caused by settler violence though, going back to Columbus's genocide of the Taino.
oh I should probably mention: These regions are almost certainly much more wild now than they were 400 years ago. Indian communities practiced forestry management and cultivation, along with maintaining the trails mentioned in the video. It's why there's early settler reports claiming America looked like a "park" (while falsely attributing that to God preparing a gift for them lol). There's also almost certainly fewer people living in Appalachia today than there were pre-colonization.
climbed Mt Le Conte in Tenneesee this spring.. rained non stop the entire hike. gave up on the rain jacket after 3 hours and just let myself get soaked. showering and laying down at the cabin after felt like HEAVEN.
my family is from this area. i’ve grown up loving this place that holds so much history and love. i went out west to Wyoming and saw the Tetons and the Wind River and Absaroka mountains. they were empty. bare and untouched. which is its own beauty. but the Appalachians are teeming with life and history. ghosts of the past. i love that.
Found this channel through the Scottish rainforest vid (as I imagine many did) and I feel so blessed, like I’ve found content made specifically for me. Adored this video and can’t wait to see what comes next ❤
I grew up in Washington, and visited the Appalachians of west NC/ east TN last year. It really does feel like a southern version of the Pacific Northwest in places, what with both regions being a temperate rain forest.
I moved from Baltimore to where this video is about 6 years ago. I miss the bay, being close to the beach, Baltimore and DC, but actual nature here is crazy. You should visit. It’s only like an 8 or so hour drive without traffic at night
You do such a great job of capturing the essence and ambience of the rainforests and other wooded areas. The camera work, the distant birds, the sounds of rain hitting the leaves. It is definitely my happy place......and I'm not just saying that because I had a recent journey with Mother Ayehausca 😀
It's probably worth noting that the Appalachian mountains have, for the most part, never been underwater in the history of the Earth unlike most places. Quite literally, there are things in the Appalachian mountains that have never left since the first supercontinent.
This man needs an award for his storytelling, facts, and especially his photography. I never thought there was a rainforest in the Appalachian mountains
They may not be the tallest or most visually impressive mountains in the world, but they are my favorite mountains for good reasons, and you have showed that excellently here in this beautiful video! Fantastic job as always, Aidin!
Those taller mountains are just big rocks. The Appalachian mountains are so full of life and weird history. I generally prefer the endless sea of green you get in panoramic views of southern Appalachia.
@@darlsbarkley3493 I agree. I've been out west for the past few weeks on a trip, and while it has been beautiful, I can't wait to get back to those beautiful green mountains that I call home.
Visually impressive? These forests on 6000+ foot hills are incredibly impressive. You want high desert? Go out west. You want trees, trees, trees green? It’s here.
Me and my family vacation there every year as we have strong family roots there and I love it. ( we were there for the 4th) we go to montreat north carolina and its so cool as its a town tucked into the forrest there is not a point where the tree canopy never breaks for a building the buildings are all under this tree canopy and its such a neat town at the base of mount michle ( I always say it looks like a rainforrest but never knew it was actualy)
