They pulled the vehicles tight against the ranger station, metal kissing wood and concrete, headlights briefly flooding the trees before being cut one by one. Darkness rushed back in immediately, heavier now that they felt the danger lurking. The only...

The mountains were still topped with snow, although the steadily increasing temperatures had melted most of it away. The white-capped peaks were contrast against a sky so clear and blue it almost didn’t seem real. April through November, about once-a-month,...

The road narrowed as they climbed. Asphalt gave way to gravel, then to hard-packed dirt that rattled beneath the Jeep’s tires and sent dust curling into the headlights. Trees pressed closer on both sides; pines and scrub oak, their branches...