SO MANY PLACES TO LOOK: If you asked a lover of vintage trains and a lover of forests and a lover of weekend outings and a lover of people-watching what most grasps their attention when everything great seems to be happening at once, you're apt to get an answer that goes along the lines of "all of it." You've been there, in a pleasant place, where much is going down: You're trying to soak it in, and memorize every last detail, which means that your eyes and ears are darting all over the dang place (if ears could be said to actually dart). But picking out one major element of an outing, for your full focus, is often the better route.
THE EXTRA CONCENTRATION... pays rewards later on, when you rhapsodize about what you admired via that singular focus. And deserving of our singular focus, as often as we can give it, are our coastal redwoods, those bark-laden behemoths that dot our state's water-close regions. The Roaring Camp Railroads wends by a number of redwoods along its Santa Cruz Mountains route, redwoods that can always be seen regardless of the theme of the trip (Halloween, the holidays, heritage happenings). But what if the sentinels that stand near the tracks, or not too far, at least, were given their own from-the-train spotlight of sorts? Then you'd have a...
RAIN FOREST WEEKEND... which is going on through March at Roaring Camp. The trains'll consider those giants and how "the forest flourishes in moderate temperatures and a year-round water supply provided by the Pacific systems and dense fog." Fascinating facts for all forest fans, and if you love trains as dearly as the woods they roam? This could be your double-the-delight ride. The Rain Forest Rides are happening every Saturday and Sunday through the end of March. Here's a question we'd ask from the rails: How much smaller were the trees when Roaring Camp was founded back in the mid-1800s? Probably not too much smaller, given a redwood's rather epic timeline. There are many trains in the world, but only a fortunate few visit some of the tallest living things on the planet.
