I wrote previously about feeling drawn to the forests, and as I have thought more about it over the past couple weeks I came to realize that what I was really craving was a particular type of deep woods serenity that I have only experienced a few times in the coast range along the Pacific. Well it turns out that this type of forest is actually more rare than I realized.

It is referred to as a temperate rain forest, and there are only seven regions in the world in which it exists. The largest is the Pacific temperate rain forest that stretches from central California to Southern Alaska and lies almost exclusively on the western slope of the coastal range of mountains. I learned some of the details about it at http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Pacific_temperate_rain_forests.

Informed with this new knowledge I actually took a road trip with my young son to go visit some of the biggest giants at Redwoods National Park in Northern California, or as I explained to him - the "big trees".

Once I can figure out my video camera, I'll post a clip from our visit.

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