The River Obscure

The gorge of the River Obscure is formed by a gap between bending trees, rays of sun slanting from the far side, and a pile of rock perhaps seventy feet high suggesting a bluff hidden in the treetops. Tourists would never come to see this place, because once more than three people got here, something bigger would be needed to impress the group. They’d be looking at each other, and in vain for something more. One person, however, stepping out onto a sandbar for the first time, on a late afternoon in summer, can feel it. The true magnitude of what we encounter can sometimes only be measured by the silence it inspires.