The stillness of the evenings came quickly in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. As the sun silhouetted the trees lining a small bay on Lake One, where we camped for four summer nights, we navigated the rugged terrain with flashlights and headlamps as the blue hour engulfed the landscape.

Earlier that week, our small group had departed from the Kawishiwi Lodge, which is about 20 miles east of Ely, Minn., on a gray morning with overpacked canoes. We weren’t straying too far, just into Lake One, a two-hour paddle at most, but even this relatively short trip was enough to immerse us in the quiet that dominates the landscape.

I watched the water roll off the canoe paddle, or follow the bobber as it sailed and broke the water, creating ripples illuminated by the orange glow of the sun, which was partially obscured by smoke from wildfires in the area.

Without the light of a campfire, the blues and greens of the wilderness remained constant. Watching the gradient of cool tones cover the coniferous forest with a layer at dusk, as the wind sifted through the towering trees, was ethereal.