I'm at Fault

---

I stood at the boundary of two of the Earth's major tectonic plate boundaries straddling the San Andreas Fault on the west coast of North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean. We went to the Point Reyes National Seashore for the week-end primarily to see the sea, the beach, the birds and the fault. We drove to a location about 30 miles north of San Francisco, but if we were to return 30 million years from now we could ride our bicycles on a lazy afternoon between San Francisco and Los Angeles. We stayed in the tiny town of Inverness, which is situated on the Pacific Tectonic Plate but looks east over the Tomales Bay, a long inlet from the ocean that doesn't look unlike a Scottish Loch. The Tomales Bay is the rift zone between the two tectonic plates, and further southeast the fault is above sea level. Inverness was small, don't blink or you'll miss it small; there was a Czech restaurant, a tea house, a hotel on the water where we stayed, a yacht club and plenty of houses hidden from view, so if you want anything besides tea and pork and liver dumplings you better drive somewhere else. We got to Inverness in the afternoon, and the skies were mostly clear - I could guess at say 30% cloud cover, not too bad for coastal California. However, that was the last of the sun.

The first evening we drove to the lighthouse on the far tip of Point Reyes National Seashore, I figured what better time to take photos. The road was narrow and very windy. We passed several traditional farms that pre-date the establishment of the National Seashore, so they are allowed to continue their traditional farming methods. Each farm had scores of cows grazing. Marin County is known for its organic produce, and known for its cheese. We drove on past these farms and entered dense fog, limiting our visibility to a 100 meters at most, sometimes less. The drive out to the far reach of the triangular shaped peninsular of the Point Reyes National Seashore took about forty five minutes, and we drove about fifteen miles, hardly Interstate Speeds. We were on narrow roads that twisted and turned frequently in the dense fog. But traffic was non-existent because everyone else had enough sense not to drive out to the lighthouse. We got to the parking lot of the lighthouse, and found out that the actual lighthouse was about a twenty minute walk beyond the road, and in this weather we wouldn't be able to see it anyway. We got out and looked around and saw little, other than the grey parking lot and the grey scrub bushes next to the parking lot. Although we could hear the barking of the sea lions and elephant seals down at the bottom of the cliff. The fog was moving through quickly, and for a brief moment we did glimpse down below us, far below us at least fifty meters away large mammals - these would be what the sign posts were telling us - sea lions and elephant seals. I'll just have to believe what I read. We drove back to civilization, and it was dark by this time. We drove right past the Czech Restaurant and onto another tiny town, Olema and had dinner to dry out and warm up.

The rocks of the Point Reyes Peninsular match rocks five hundred kilometers to the south. The San Andreas fault runs northwest-southeast and grinds together causing earthquakes, it's been doing so for millions of years and will continue to do so as the two plates continue to move relative to each other for millions of years to come. The weather is remarkably similar year round, the summer weather is cooled by the near constant fog and the winter weather is warmed by the ocean currents. The original native population, the Miwoks, understood the significance of this place, they had a very abundant year round supply of shellfish, salmon, elk, acorns and berries. In 1579, Francis Drake moored his boat offshore in the southern bay, now named for him, but it's unlikely he sailed into the yet undiscovered San Francisco Bay just a few miles south. Undiscovered by Europeans, that is - the native population have known about this area for possibly ten thousand years. The Spanish soon followed, and without going into the details of the American and Spanish conflicts the region became American in the nineteenth century. Since the time of the Spanish, the peninsular has been used as farming land. The region was established as a national seashore in 1962.

The next day, we drove north along Highway 1 to Bodega Bay. The fog had lifted here but it wasn't clear and sunny, the marine air was just lighter and higher. We stopped frequently along the way to take photos and enjoy the scenery. I watched some beginner surfers try their skills in the Pacific Ocean. I saw some large flocks of pelicans come in for a landing. I photographed some long or short billed Dowitchers drill for food in the mud. I prodded a stranded jellyfish with a stick on the pebble beach during low tide. I observed an anemone and its tentacles flowing back and forth in the surf. There are plenty of seashore activities to do along this part of the coast.

The next morning went to the Visitor Center of the Point Reyes National Seashore, and then took the one mile long walk in a circle that straddles the two tectonic plates. Here the San Andreas Fault is above sea level, and it continues south through California into Mexico. The North American Tectonic Plate is moving south relative to the Pacific Plate which is moving north relative. Into the fault zone we walked, covered in grassland and a few scattered large trees. It is right here that the plates slipped in 1906 which caused the great earthquake in San Francisco. There was a fence dividing properties from the time before the earthquake that is now offset by about five meters and the park service has retained the fence to show the magnitude of the quake. It is estimated that the quake was a 7.9 on the Richter Scale; of course this is only an estimate because the earthquake pre-dates these measurements. Fires devastated San Francisco, which had to be rebuilt at tremendous cost. The walk through the rift zone was most interesting and a highlight to our trip to the region.

Later in the day, we returned to Sacramento via another tiny town called Nicasio. Beside the road was a sign advertising cheese tasting, so we came to an abrupt halt and checked out this tiny shop and its selection of organic cheese to taste. It was worth the stop, and we bought some cheese. Now all we need someone to do is to invent a wine tasting and cheese tasting - to combine the best of both worlds. We continued on full of cheese and drove along Lucas Valley Road where George Lucas has his Skywalker Ranch. Apparently, although it seems too unbelievable, Lucas Valley Road was not named after George Lucas but it was named after a local land developer from the turn of the last century. The Skywalker Ranch is not shown on a map directly, but we knew that it was along here somewhere. We were looking carefully for any sight of Wookies, light sabres, and the Millenium Falcon. We did see a couple of magnificent and enormous buildings. When we returned and had a look on the internet it seems as if we did catch the briefest of glimpses of the ranch and studio, although I would have to return in the other direction to verify. I need to return at another time of the year, just to see Point Reyes National Seashore without the thick fog and marine air.

---

Photos

Sea Lions and elephant seals
We could hear them, but not see them very well

Tomales Bay from our hotel
We were looking across the San Andreas rift zone

The rift zone of the San Andreas Fault
The rift is perhaps 100 meters wide