In one of the world's most densely populated regions, Amsterdam now has a wilderness beside it that looks like a bit of African savannah, with herds of grazing herbivores and flocks of birds wheeling above them.
"We have a meaningful wilderness syndrome," a Denver man said not long ago.
"Mountain lions and rattlers are watching you, but you'll meet a lot of people and still have a reasonably wild wilderness experience".
Put another way, the question is: what does it mean to Americans to have an "ultimate wilderness," to borrow a phrase from "Coming Into the Country," John McPhee's book about Alaska.
They have taken a wilderness survival class in Central Park and on Saturday will volunteer at a run hosted by Brooklyn Pride, which supports gay rights.
That is a luxury most people in rich countries are glad to be able to afford.The Hoover Dam changed the human geography of America, luring tens of millions into an arid West that would otherwise have remained a wilderness.
Tucked among a grove of fig, ebony and wild olive trees in the hilly west of Nairobi national park, the collection of eight enormous safari tents, mess tent and lounge tent that form the Nairobi Tented Camp, has a remote wilderness atmosphere that is as alluring as camps in the Masai Mara reserve that take hours to reach.
Exodus (exodus.co.uk) has a Finnish wilderness week at Basecamp Oulanka, from £1,329pp, including flights from the UK Caitfiz Ruissalo Island If you're visiting Turku, European Capital of Culture in 2011, take the number 8 bus out to this lush, green island in the Gulf of Finland.
It's wilderness, and wilderness areas have a kind of common culture, but this one is in a part of Spain that has a very particular, and decidedly mixed, cultural and linguistic heritage.
