A quiet state park in California

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo credit: Ramesh lalwani

Writer Rosecrans Baldwin reports in Travel & Leisure on California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, about 50 miles northeast of San Diego. Anza-Borrego is California’s largest state park. The park just received a Quiet Conservation Area award from the nonprofit Quiet Parks International. Baldwin, who was accompanied by a representative from QPI, drove a quiet electric truck. The sound pressure level in the park measured 26 decibels, about the same as a ticking watch. That’s very quiet.

Quiet is good for the ears and for many, good for the soul as well. As the National Park Service noise maps show, nature is quiet without anthropogenic noise. Desert areas are particularly quiet because there are no large trees whose leaves make noise in the wind.

I have been to Anza-Borrego to see the California native plants that bloom there in the spring, especially after a good rain year. It’s a beautiful place, different from other desert parks such as Death Valley National Park or Joshua Tree National Park. With or without the spring bloom, it’s well worth a visit if one is in the area.