Quiet Rivers ( #AtoZChallenge )

       Quiet (or still) waters run deep goes an old saying, meaning a quiet exterior can hide danger or inner turmoil.  That might certainly be the case with some rivers.  Not all quiet rivers are deep or dangerous.  But beware!  Some are...

Quiet Rivers

A Quiet River (desktop nexus)

      Some rivers rush and roar as they wend their ways through mountains and perilous valleys.  Then there are those rivers that upon first glance might seem like they are going nowhere.  There are rivers that flow with almost imperceptible movement to the casual onlooker and yet if you study the river carefully you might detect a current.  Throw a leaf or something light into the water and watch it drift away.  The river is moving even though it looks like maybe it's not going anywhere at all.  

        There's an old saying that quiet (still) waters run deep.  A big wide slow moving river might very well have portions that run very deep. The plodding Mississippi plunges to a depth of 200 feet at its deepest points.  The Monongahela River in Morgantown WV where my relatives lived is a slow moving somewhat foreboding looking river which has an appearance of being deep is probably only 20 feet or less in the parts that I used to frequent as a child.

        Then there are certain slow moving waters where one can see the river bottom.  Often these are smaller rivers with relatively light flows.  One can peacefully float in a boat and fish or just dream without much fear about capsizing.  If the boat tips you can just stand on the river bottom and flip it back over.   

        Mostly when I think of quiet rivers that are larger I think of those rivers in flatter areas like Florida or Louisiana.  Rivers can expand widths until they are more like vast swamps.  However there are larger quiet rivers throughout the Midwest as well as many other states throughout the country.

        Quiet waters do not necessarily mean silence though.  Drift awhile or laze on the riverbanks and listen.  Maybe you hear the splash of a fish breaking the water surface.  Over there is the call of a bird. All around you might hear the sounds of insects or the hypnotic croaks of frogs.  The waters might be mostly quiet, but the world can be a wonderfully textured aural quilt of sounds of nature.

           Some say that the quietest place in the continental  United States is in the Hoh River Valley on the Olympic Peninsula of the state of Washington.  Since the river originates on a mountain I'm not sure that the entire river would be all that quiet, but from what I've read there are parts of this river that are blissfully silent.  Sounds like a place we all could use an occasional dose of in this frequently noisy world we live in.

         Do you have a favorite quiet river retreat?    Are you a bit frightened by the sounds of nature?   What do you do when you want to have peace and quiet?