The land where the internet ends

It's become harder and harder to escape from technology. But there are still places with no cellphones — just stars, solitude, and human connection.

Green Bank.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Chris Dorst)

This story originally appeared in The New York Times. Republished with permission.

A few weeks ago, I drove down a back road in West Virginia and into a parallel reality. Sometime after I passed Spruce Mountain, my phone lost service — and I knew it would remain comatose for the next few days. When I spun the dial on the car radio, static roared out of every channel. I had entered the National Radio Quiet Zone, 13,000 square miles of mountainous terrain with few cell towers or other transmitters.

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