Finding a location--forest scene

Today Callie, Lauren, and I went on a hunt to find a place to film for our forest scene. We decided to check out three nearby locations: Vista View Park, Everglades Holiday Park, and Markham Park. Each location had some pros and cons to it.

For our scene, the most ideal situation would be a park that was large, open, and woodsy with lots of trees but had a secluded section where we could film without being disturbed or worrying about other people getting in the background of our shot. Also, we would ideally be filming at night so we would need a park that is open late, or we will have to try to figure out editing techniques to make the scene darker. First, we evaluated Vista View Park. The park is a big hill, which did not completely fit the vision we had for the forest scene. The park was very busy and there weren't many areas that were secluded enough for us to film. Also, the park closes at 7:30 pm every night. We could not find any pros for this location and immediately eliminated it from our list of considerations. Next, we went to Markah Park. This park also closes at 7:30 pm every night, but it gave the right effect we were hoping to achieve. The park is very large and there are numerous trails into the forest area that we could use for filming. The last place we considered was Everglades Holiday Park. This park officially closes at 5 pm; however, there are surrounding grassy areas that we could use to film, but similar to vista view park, it didn't quite fit the image we wanted for our scene. In the end, we have chosen to go with Markham Park because it captures the essence of a secluded forest. I attached an image below of one of Markham Park's trails that we can use to film our scene in. We will have to be creative with the lighting and editing techniques to make the forest appear to be darker, but we think that this option is truly the best and will make our scene great!!