One weekend in late June I decided to take advantage of the lack of strong winds and took a 300-mile roadtrip through Nebraska's Sandhills country. The Sandhills region is a desolate area with few highways, towns, stores, or even homes. One look at a map will show this huge area encompasses over a third of Nebraska, in the north and west parts of the state.
Cherry County in Northern Nebraska measures 60 by 100 miles and has only two major north/south highways (as well as one other paved state highway) and only one east/west highway. The largest town, Valentine, has fewer than 3,000 residents. The other six towns in the county each have fewer than 100 residents. The remainder of the county is comprised of huge ranches. The area north of I-80 and west of highway 183 is typical of Cherry County.
The highways are, for the most part, in fairly good shape. Depending on the time of day, it's normal to travel several miles without encountering another vehicle.
The reason for the lack of services or homes is due to property owned by large cattle ranches, many of which cover many square miles, with the main residence situated several miles from the paved highway.
In this arid part of the country, the cattle need a lot of land to forage for the available food. Water is still supplied by windmills.
Nebraska does have a few National Forests, mostly covered with Ponderosa Pine as well as Cottonwood. These areas support large populations of deer, both whitetail and mule deer, wild turkey, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions. Camping, swimming, hiking, hunting, and ATV/dirt bike trails are available in these areas.