Starry Night

twenty-three

The canyon's arms open up and deliver us straight into it, the river flowing down the center.

"Majestic Grove," Jungkook whistles, stopping to look up at the enormous trunks. "Giant trees. Many of these beauties are a thousand years old. The woods on the coast can get taller, but these here are bigger."

I've seen coastal woods around the observatory at home, but I've never seen an entire forest of giant trees. Some of them here are as big around as a car and they nearly block out the sky. And the canyon ferns we've been walking through have nothing on these. They create a pale green carpet on the forest floor, and their fronds are so large, it's as if they're in competition with the trees to see who can grow bigger.

"It looks prehistoric," I murmur.

"Endor Forest scenes with the ewoks in Return of the Jedi were filmed in the Bay Area in a forest like this. So cool, right?"

"It's stunning," I say as we enter the ancient forest, craning my neck up at the trunks. The ground is spongy, and it smells strange here, like an outdoor library - musty. A good kind of musty. And it's quiet. Which is odd, because the canyon was filled with the sounds of singing birds and the echo of the river off the rocky canyon walls. The water is still flowing here, but it's softer babble, absorbed by the great trees.

I walk up to a tree and run my hand over soft, corrugated bark, marveling, and then stretch out my arms and try to hug it. "How many people would it take to reach all the way around?"

"Too many." Jungkook stands near me and stretches his arms around the tree, too. We don't even make it a quarter of the way around together.

"I love this place," I say, and mean it.

"It's my favorite part of the park," he says, eyes sparkling. "My cathedral."

I understand why.

He points to our left. "There's a bigger trail that runs along the northern edge of the trees, several miles from here. No one comes down this way. It's secluded. Form man and beast. The trees block out the sunlight, so there's less food for animals. Fewer insects for birds, so it's quieter."

"No mosquitoes."

"Fewer mosquitoes," he corrects.

"I'll take it. Any improvement is a good thing," I say, looking around. "This is surreal. I wish we could stay here."

"We can," he says. "This is where we're camping.

"Tonight?"

"Right now. We're stopping early."

"Really?"

"Truly. Reason one being that I love it here. I know it might sound weird, because it's so dark in here, but it's sort of my happy place. And when I first found it, one of the things I thought was that I wished you could be here to share it with me."

I look into his face and my heart melts.

"Now you can," he says, softer.

Thunder booms in the distance.

Jungkook points upward. "And that right there is reason number two. That storm is going to be fierce, and we need to find a place to make camp. Let's get a little farther away from the canyon and find a good spot. Hurry."

There's not a trail here, so we have to pick our way around the trees and ferns as we follow the river and make our way deeper into the trees. The thunder's getting louder, which scares me, but every time I find a clear spot big enough to accommodate our tents, Jungkook looks up and shakes his head.