The Internet can be a maddening, toxic place at times, but there are plenty of safe, relaxing spaces on YouTube to escape to—or as I like to put it, floss your teeth to. The second post I made on this blog site nine years ago was about my addiction to the hypnotic, front-seat train ride videos of Europe, and I have since added the perfectly filmed plane rides of Skylite Productions to this floss-worthy festival.

Then a few months ago, I came across the extraordinary one-man, “silent hiking” videos of Harmen Hoek, and trust me, they blow away any short travel films you will ever watch. Hoek, a former physicist from the Netherlands, assembles beyond-gorgeous footage—often using staggering drone views—shot in numerous amazing places—the Himalayas, the Dolomites, the Balkans, the Pyrenees, the Wadi Rum Desert, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite backcountry, and even Iceland (where he camped by an active volcano). And that’s just for starters. Each video runs between 25 and 45 minutes and is put to soothing, unobtrusive music from a subscription service called Musicbed. Hoek’s camera shots are long enough to savor the natural beauty yet clipped enough to keep each journey fresh. Without one word of narration and plenty of natural sound, they seat you on a peaceful earth train and just pull you along.

When I ask him if he takes a camera operator with him on his hikes, Hoek says “Everything you see is recorded by me. No one has ever touched my camera during a hike.”  My only response to that is: Holy. Crap. Meaning in addition to having an incredible eye for nature’s beauty, Hoek is also a drone master; many shots float from thousands of feet up, his hiking figure just visible below on the trail.

Each video includes a few signature Hoek habits, like fondly patting direction signs he walks by, or making morning coffee and healthy meals over the same little gas burner. Everything is shot in pristine high-definition, and when you fill your computer screen, you really feel like you’re joining him on the hike.

Hoek tells me his personal favorite video so far is of the 21 days spent on the John Muir Trail (at an hour and eleven minutes, it’s his lone “epic”), due to his love for the Sierras, and he has plans to do some hiking this summer in Banff and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.  His work is truly an Internet gift; when life gets too crazy and stressful, Hoek is more than happy to immerse you in his Great Outdoors.

Harmen Hoek’s YouTube home can be found here…