Escape From It All: Recharge the Soul

I'm no longer exactly into roughing it with a backpack through backcountry, but there are beautiful, remote places where it's still possible to get off the electric and other grids and return to simpler times.

Even cellphone reception is iffy in many places, some on federal land.

Sometimes a soul needs to recharge close to the ground, under the skies, with few distractions. Every day, many of us turn to email, social media, websites, television, Skype, etc. to learn about what's going on in the world and to stay connected with people. It is even possible for many of us to have Facebook friends who we've never met and may never meet, to be on groups with people we have little in common with.

On my search for such spots to recharge, here's a favorite.

Most days, Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming has more cattle and rattlesnakes than people. Mornings, I woke before dawn to cows mooing. Nights, the sky turned more colors than I knew existed. Stars are so close that I felt I could catch one in my hand.

Summer days can be brutally hot, winters harsh. There isn't much in the way of entertainment. You can walk, sing aloud even if you don't have the voice for it, read a book inside the tent, open a can of beans for dinner (no campfires in this dry-grass country). Make sure you stay on federal land. Property owners here don't take kindly to trespassers. They carry big guns and display them prominently in their pickup trucks.

What a gorgeous place they've got.