The easy ride along tree-lined roads has few hills, and the snow-covered mountains, off-shore islands and deep forests make for majestic scenery.

BBC: Journey to Canada��s secret sunshine coast

Eight small boats exploring stretches of the Hudson opening to canoeists in the central Adirondacks all made it through seven moderate rapids interspersed with long flat-water stretches on a 7.3-mile trip through deep forests of evergreens and hardwoods.

WSJ: OUT THERE: Upper Hudson opening to canoeists

Over countless millennia it evolved its own vibrant ecosystem, its volcanic peaks cloaked in deep tropical forests still riot with life: exotic birds, flowers and reptiles, many of these species found nowhere else on the planet.

BBC: Blending of cultures in Mauritius

The engineer was driven by motorbike from the place of his captivity deep inside the forests of Chitrakonda to a nearby town.

BBC: Kidnapped Indian engineer freed by Maoists in Orissa

Scientists with San Diego biotech firm Diversa have descended into volcanoes in Siberia, plumbed thermal vents 3, 000 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean and crawled around the humid rain forests of Costa Rica.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But the smell of the beech forests, the untamed West Coast beaches and the amazing clear air of the Deep South - it has to be the best in the world - made it all worthwhile.

BBC: New Zealand��s tracks less travelled

At its best, says Mary Evelyn Tucker of Yale University's Forum on Religion and Ecology, environmental theology goes deep inside the metaphysical ideas that underpin ancient faiths while also celebrating what believers actually do, from tending forests to limiting their food intake.

ECONOMIST: Religion and climate change