Would you believe it if I told you that in less than a half hour from downtown Oakland you could be in a wilderness Redwood forest? The only sounds, an occasional jet high overhead and the wind gently ruffling the trees. Go on a weekday afternoon and you may not see another soul. Go this month and you may see the wild iris in bloom. Go in the rain and you will see the vernal waterfalls and the headwaters of Redwood Creek. You will see these things on French Trail, and, if a visitor, your thoughts of Oakland will change forever.