When the call about the missing campers and the abandoned campsite came in, I was sitting in front of the Park Ranger station, watching a fire that crackled in the rusted old pit

that's been here for decades. The flames were slowly eating the wood. The heat occasionally sputtered

and spat as the pine logs were devoured. It's one of my favorite ways to pass the time out here.

A fire, like watching fish in an aquarium or animals in a zoo, is endlessly captivating because

it's a tiny bit of nature captured and put on display.

The same reason people come here to the Spruce Ridge National Park, and just like a fire,

the woods here can scorch you if you're not careful.

I shuffled back inside, took the call, and headed out for the rendezvous

point after listening to the report for a few minutes. Another couple gone missing. Nothing too

out of the ordinary, at least not yet. So I loaded my gun, hopped in my jeep, and headed out as

the sun began to recede past the trees. The searing summer sun peaked out from between

dense fir limbs that surrounded the rocky terrain on all sides, sweeping over the horizon as far as I

could see. I passed glimmering ponds filled with plant life and pavilions filled with brown picnic

benches as the jeep bounced up and down on carefully maintained blacktop and rutted brown roads filled with rock.

I could practically hear the croak of frogs, the chirping of crickets, and the hum of a few dragonflies as I sped past.

No matter how long I was a park ranger, I never got used to the thrill of the great outdoors.

The serenity you could find in the fresh air was eternal, as was its sheer size.

It reminds me of pioneer days when it was just a few families alone in the vastness of the

frontier, and it was a very unforgiving frontier.

Back then, there were no rangers or park security like me to make sure no families got lost. First aid didn't exist,

and Mother Nature never suffered fools. Some people have forgotten that, but Mother Nature never

hesitates to remind people about what she can do. Lately she seems particularly active on that

...