Agreed. The sheer scale of the western US in terms of distances, emptiness, and climate hazards are lost on a lot of people from Europe where the next town is 5

Agreed. The sheer scale of the western US in terms of distances, emptiness, and climate hazards are lost on a lot of people from Europe where the next town is 5 miles away and there's probably a nice train to take you there and if you don't make it, it's 65 anyway and there's a stream 100 meters away at all times.