Words fall short when expressing my feelings when I visit the Pawnee National Grasslands. There is this quiet. The only sounds are the wind, the birds, maybe a cow mooing in the distance, my footsteps and my breathing. None of the sounds of the city can be heard, the ones we are accustomed to hearing and are almost expected. The vastness of this landscape has a way of making me feel small and insignificant, yet I feel so much a part of it. It’s an ecosystem all its own, one many people never experience. This is a land where no plow has turned the soil. There is not much of that left in of the short, mixed and tall prairies. This is cowboy country where small dark specks in the distance are grazing cattle. It’s a place of quiet.