SPARKS, Neb. — When canoeing down the scenic Niobrara River, leave your cellular phone behind.
It will flash "No Service" for miles.
Running through a canyon banked by pine trees and sandhills, the river that practically parallels the Nebraska-South Dakota border offers an escape from the world of telephones, television and computers and instead invites you to waterfalls, buffalo and a big sky.
"You name the type of terrain, and we have it," says Brad Arrowsmith, who owns 17 miles of riverfront property and is chairman of a council in charge of protecting the Niobrara.
Six major ecological systems meet along the river, including eastern deciduous forest, tall grass prairie, Sandhills prairie, Rocky Mountain pine forest, northern boreal forest and mixed-grass prairie.
Time seems to pass just a little slower along the Niobrara, 76 miles of which was designated a national scenic river in 1991.
The river winds its way through a sandstone canyon dotted with pine trees, the occasional bison, and more than 200 different species of birds.
"People from New York are just mind-boggled when they come up here," said Nola Moosman, who rents inner tubes near the river in Valentine. "They don't have to do everything on a dead run, horns aren't honking, phones aren't ringing and you don't have to wait in line."
Most people who canoe down the river are from Nebraska or South Dakota. But word is spreading about the river.
Last year, National Geographic designated going down the Niobrara as one of the nation's 100 best adventures. Backpacker magazine named it one of the top 10 canoeing rivers in the country.
Getting to the river can be half the fun.
The river's most popular launching points are near Valentine, a town of 2,820 people, and Sparks, a road stop of about 30 people about 14 miles farther downstream.
The nearest regional commercial airport is 200 miles away in North Platte, with larger cities even a greater distance — Denver, 400 miles to the southwest; Omaha, 300 miles to the southeast; and Rapid City, S.D., 200 miles northwest.
Despite its remoteness, an estimated 40,000 people traverse the river each year. It's not the area's only attraction.
Deer and wild turkey hunting are popular. Bikers, hikers and horseback riders enjoy stretches of the Cowboy Trail, a 321-mile path being developed across northern Nebraska, which will be the longest continuous recreational trail in the country when completed.
The scenic river is, no doubt, the area's largest drawing card.
Called "Running Water" by the Sioux Indians, the Niobrara begins in the plains of Wyoming and runs 300 miles east before it meets the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska.
Most people launch their canoes, kayaks or inner tubes from Cornell Bridge inside the Fort Niobrara Wildlife Refuge east of Valentine.
A canoe ride to Smith Falls, Nebraska's tallest waterfall at 70 feet, takes nearly three hours, but thanks to a current that runs at about 6 mph, hard rowing is not necessary. Letting the river take you by inner tube, it's about a six-hour journey.
Canoers looking to cool off can stand underneath Smith Falls' spray, or wade in the stream that flows about 300 yards from its base to the river. Wild blackberries grow for the picking along a trail to the falls.
Beyond Smith Falls, the river offers a stretch of navigable whitewater at Fritz's Island. Rapids requiring portage can be found at Rocky Ford and Franklin's Rapids.
The most popular stretch of the river ends at Norden Dam, about 30 miles from Cornell Bridge. Some people have gone farther downstream where there are no public facilities.
An average 18 inches deep, the Niobrara is not intimidating for newcomers. It can be canoed year-round, and some do brave the cold of winter to navigate it, but the tourist season generally runs from mid-April through October.
Ten outfitters in and around Valentine shuttle people to the launch sites.
Lodging is available in Valentine, about five miles from Cornell Bridge, and there are a number of campsites along the river.
While the river offers seclusion, peace and quiet, those who come looking for that on some summer weekends can be surprised.
"They are just utterly overwhelmed by people," said Paul Hedren, superintendent of the Park Service's Niobrara-Missouri National Scenic Riverways office in O'Neill. "It's just aluminum from start to finish."
The best bet for a peaceful ride is to make the journey during a weekday, when your canoe may be the only one in sight.
Outfitters, police and conservationists are working to curb rowdy canoers drinking beer and squirting high-powered water guns.
Beer recently was outlawed within the wildlife refuge, which covers the first six miles of the river from Cornell Bridge. Signs at the launch site remind users of the alcohol ban, and prohibitions on water guns and loud radios.
Environmentalists are pushing for a total ban on alcohol within the river's 76-mile scenic boundary, but alcohol remains for sale at outfitters along the river and in Valentine.
"The truth is, if you're not hurting yourself, and you're not a danger to others, then we probably don't care if you have a beer along the river," Hedren said.
Outside the wildlife refuge, all land along the river's banks is privately owned. Most of it is ranch land, though some property owners are developing land for recreational use.
That development is bothersome to river users who consider traversing the river a religious experience.
"They say it's like coming home," said Moosman, the inner tube outfitter. "It's a Norman Rockwellian existence — people are friendly and nice, and the place is clean."