Grizzly Hills - Music & Ambience - World of Warcraft

The Grizzly Hills, located in southeastern Northrend, is a forested area, surrounded by the Howling Fjord to the south, the Dragonblight to the west and Zul'Drak to the north. It is the homeland of the Grizzlemaw furbolgs. Over 20,000 furbolgs live in this zone, most in the large settlement of Grizzlemaw. Both the dwarven settlement of Thor Modan and Ice Troll/Scourge fortress of Drak'Tharon Keep can be found in the north.

It is similar to other forests during wintertime, except that winter here is year-round. The trees are tall and thick; the pine needles and crisp, clean air produce a pleasant scent, the snow leaves the ground clean and fresh, and the hills themselves are high enough for decent elevation but low enough and gradual enough to be easily climbed. It is one of the nicest regions in Northrend. Dwarves live here at Thor Modan, but they aren’t the only residents. Furbolgs dominate the region, and they make fine neighbors when they’re not attacking. The Scourge has a presence here as well, but not strong enough to do much more than block the northwest corner. Wild animals roam the hills, providing plenty of meat, fur, and entertainment. It is not an easy land by any stretch, but it is handsome, fierce, and full of life.

Text above is taken from Grizzly Hills Wowpedia page:

Original thumbnail art by Justin Kunz

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[RLara]

15 years old, get home from school friday, throw book bag on the bed, kick off shoes, turn pc on, launch WoW. Run to kitchen to grab a snack and a drink. Sits down and logs in, selects lvl 79 ret pally "Kenkay". Guild friends immediately say hi and start chatting it up talking about your plans to play all weekend. The dungeons you guys will run and the group quests you will need help with because you cant solo them. Grinding out that last level to hit 80. You turn your last quest in to get that achievement and BAM! you got it! You guild mates congratulate you, you type in "DING!" in the /1 general chat, all the random strangers in the zone Congratulate you! Not a worry in the world. Life was good.

[dylanleisler]

a time forever lost, but always cherished

[Bloodworia]

We played all day, never worrying about anything in life.

[voxtek]

I'll forever have a love for this zone and the music, it was the last place I was leveling with my brother before he died.

[marialuizadeoliveiramorett]

These stories of people logging off forever in some place they love, with their friends or alone, ALWAYS make me emotional

[mattg]

Wrath of the Lich King was honestly the best expansion in my opinion. Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills were so amazing.

[coolasice]

Everyone has their story about this place. When they felt depressed, alone or wanted to be alone, under the pines looking over to a river. But we enjoyed every bit of it. And it kinda hurts me that I would never experience wow as i once did when i was in my early teens.

[robinvooijs]

I remember starting this game when I was 35 years old in 2007. I was hooked straight away and WoW was ‘ Home ‘ instantly.
I landed a great guild and we spent years and years together. Even when I met my wife and got my 3 wonderful kids with her, there was always loads of time for WoW. With the expansions and years, people started to leave. Every time someone left it felt someone died. People you spoke every day for 10 years , instantly gone..
In 2021 the guild died. I took over the guild and to this day i play alone in there, levelling new alts in WotLK. The best time I had in WoW. There are 166 chars in the guild and with wet eyes I see the names of my old mates offline for over 3 years. I still love questing and raiding with another guild, but I just can never leave ‘ Desperate Murlocs’ on Bronzebeard. The guild where it all began and having the best time…

[Dragunov]

I left a piece of my heart, in a virtual Realm...

[ganpapathsoypethwong]

This soundtrack reminds me of my beloved husband who died 2 years ago. He play those WOW soundtracks when I could not sleep.

[slBamBam]

I remember back in 2008 when I would play on my dad's WoW account. He ended up so happy that I fell in love with the game that he bought me my own expansion pack (still have that bad boy on the shelf) and subscription. I was only seven years old, but I remember every second of playing through this expansion. Coming home from school, running upstairs to my room and getting on my crappy laptop and launching up WoW. I didn't have a clue what I was doing in the game, but I loved it. I first hit 80 on my human warrior in this very zone (with my fathers help of course). My father was so happy for me that he ran upstairs to talk to me about raiding with him and my uncle. Raiding with my dad, my uncle and all of their friends brings back so many memories. I was just a measly little seven year old playing an arms warrior raiding with his dad. This game made new friendships for me that still live on to this day. This game was my escape from any problems that I was going through. Any hardships. Thank you Blizzard for changing my life back in 2008, I can't thank you enough.
I'd also like to thank my father for introducing me to this wonderful game that we call World of Warcraft. I love you, pops.

[ImKorl]

Don't be sad you can't go back lads, be happy that it happened. The innocence, the enjoyment, the magic. What a time

Hope the younger generations get to experience moments like 2008 Wotlk with your friends when you knew nothing about the challenges of the world outside and all that mattered was getting that next gear upgrade

[fieryapple]

I broke up with my boyfriend for the first time in my life and wasn't taking it well. I closed off people, got into severe depression and even thought of unaliving myself, I was so stupid and young, and he hurt me so much. Then, completely devastated, I got into wow to keep my mind off things, and it helped so much. Month forward, I was happily playing the game, taking my time to explore the world, and loved it so much. I remember spending hours in this zone to catch a spirit bear pet for my character, a night elf hunter. Good times.

[lifforthen]

Grizzly Hills probably has my favorite soundtrack out of every place in WoW.

[MrDiggidydave]

22 years old - I remember working shift work at a pulp mill, feeling full of anger/sadness/depression from the toxic work atmosphere that it was. After 12 hours of what amounted to abuse on a normal basis, I would grab the steering wheel with white knuckles and begin to decompress on the way home to our apartment.

I loved the fact that my girlfriend of 3 years was living with me and we both enjoyed playing world of Warcraft since vanilla. I would pull into the parking lot and walk upstairs and turn on the PC. My girlfriend would have some snacks ready for us both, unaware of the troubles I had endured during the shift. With both of our PCs beside each other, (so we could see each other's screens) we would log in at the same time and count our line in the Queue while seeing that awesome new WOTLK loading screen, trying to figure out who will get in first, it was so close. (Me - Orc Warlock - Demonatic. Her - Blood Elf Hunter - Talyiah) While waiting for our turn to join the world, we would discuss our plans on what to accomplish. I was excited to be a higher level and look out for her. I would protect her from the opposite faction, and hold off elites long enough for her to escape troubling situations!

Grizzly hills was the zone we would turn down the game sound effects so we could barely hear them, and crank up the music.

There I was. Beside the girl I loved. Some homemade snacks she made for us with love, and a cold drink of mountain Dew. Forgetting all about the horrible shift at the mill. We would sit beside each other and enjoy the company. Share goals, and what we needed help with. All of the sadness and anger flushed away, just like that. Sitting there in grizzly hills, feeling peaceful.

33 years old - I now have a family with that woman. Made the hard decision to leave that abusive workplace 4 years ago. Couldn't be happier.

I have an appreciation for video games and how they can provide moments of peace when it seems unobtainable. I will remember that with my own kids.

[tomg]

little 13 year old me...a hunter, running through these woods free and happy, looking for Arcturis the spirit bear with this music in the background, school tomorrow, can already smell the dinner, life was so good. god i miss it. i miss it everyday.

[JPancakes]

33 years old....this takes me to a place I've been a million times but can never go back. I hope it's played at my funeral one day. Just so it's played when I see the boys again 💪

[Portharian]

The last social and best expansion. Where everyone you encountered was friendly. Getting invites to groups and you all talk about life, happiness, sadness, etc.. Guild-mates are there and help you with every growth you make. Strangers, friends, and guild-mates are all congratulating you for hitting 80. Many memories have been made in Wrath of The Lich King.

[dzonialucard]

Its funny... how I cant explain the feeling that this brings up - yet some random guy half way accros the world feels exactly the same while listening to this.

[Knightgil]

I was in high school when WOTLK came out. I had played WoW since vanilla, I was about 13 years old then. If there's one thing I remember about this game is the music. The music is one of the things that truly made this game what it was. This soundtrack is simply beautiful.

What got me into WoW was not the grind, the gear, the raids, the progress, the rat race that it became. No. It was the little things. Entering Goldshire's inn for the first time and seeing night elf players sitting on chairs and just socializing, it was finding and reading all those lore books spread out across the world, paying for pet slots in the stables and then discovering that was useless because I was a warrior and I thought that's how I would get a mount, and then someone telling me that I actually needed to wait to level 40 and then buying them at a vendor, figuring out how to fish, travelling to Darnassus, all the way from Ironforge to the Wetlands, just because I wanted my character to learn how to use a bow. Waking up early before school to do a few quests in Duskwood or risk myself going to Booty Bay and dying several times along the way to ganks and high level tigers. It was the sheer realization that I just entered a world so vast and so deep that I would never fully experience it myself. A world made alive by all the NPCs, all the little stories and quests and all the players that inhabited it. A world that was mysterious and as much as I would explore, there would always be something else in the shadows left to discover. Someone to talk and play with. Those were the really cool moments, because you couldn't survive nor thrive in this world alone. It was about grouping up with others to complete quests that you couldn't otherwise attempt. Making new friends from across the world.

I remember buying and mounting the black stallion, my first mount, in Arathi Highlands with my online friends. I remember going into Karazhan and inevitably wipe the raid over and over again because I wanted to do big damage, was impatient and pulled mobs or took too much aggro. I remember never had any success with raids until WOTLK came and I started to make my own raid groups, because everyone started to look to achievements and gear level and judge you, and lots of people got left out. I proudly display the title Champion of the Frozen Wastes since then, because it took me a lot of effort to finally put together a group that was able to take down Malygos, and I did. I remember Ulduar as this amazing, mythical raid that was fearsome at the time. I took down Mimiron, but sadly, never Yogg-Saron. But before that, I remember taking the ship to Borean Tundra, and starting my Northrend adventure from then. I remember that amazing piano track in Dragonblight, and I remember a nasty winter setting in and basically freezing in real life while in virtual life I was making my way through Zul'Drak, and that was like both me and my character facing an unforgiving cold environment together.

I could go on and on. Point is, WoW was a game that I'll always remember fondly. It had it's problems, I could have spent more time doing other, healthier things than spending hours in front of the computer. It was unhealthy for me in a way. But in another way, it was such an incredible experience that I'm so grateful that I lived. Things will never be the same. I'm much older now. The world changed. I will never be able to game in such a care-free way again. There will never be another game that makes me feel so amazed, so invested, so immersed in a new, mysterious, exquisite world like WoW. My character, my warrior, wasn't just an online toon. It was a fragment of myself, a self that I couldn't otherwise express. Unfortunately, WoW died back in Cataclysm. It just would never be the same again. I still played ocasionally until Legion, defeated Argus and then retired. And even though that was an amazing expansion, the best since WOTLK, the truth is that, for me, the golden days of WoW were long over. Those days from Classic and WOTLK (TBC isn't as memorable to me as those two expansions) were, for me, the golden days of WoW, not only one of the best gaming experiences I had, but one of the best life experiences I had. So, I thank the original developers of this amazing game. It isn't the epics, the arena ratings, the achievements, the mounts, or any of those things that I hold on to. It is the memories and the little things. Those are the things that truly matter.