Living along the San Andreas Fault sometimes feels like living on the edge. (Excuse my pun)
Recently we learned a lot about earthquakes. While the exhibit in the Tech Museum in San Jose was the most descriptive, the two earthquake trails we walked were especially good for exercise, and made it feel more real.
In the Tech Museum, I liked the platform that reenacts different quakes the best. The three earthquakes I experienced so far all had slightly different motions. On the platform in the Tech Museum it confirmed that it wasn’t just me feeling it, they are different!
Point Reyes National Park has an earthquake trail which is about a 30 minute loop. It’s near the visitor center for Bear Valley, which I also highly recommend for exploring.
On the trail are two different signposts, one for adults and one for kids. They also had markers to follow along the fault. The most impressive one is a fence that did a 16 feet jump during the 1906 quake.
The other earthquake trail is a 1.5 mile hike in Los Trancos Open Space Preserve. http://www.openspace.org/preserves/los-trancos We picked up a brochure (you can also see the PDF here: https://earth.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/San_Andreas_Fault_Trail.pdf) at the main parking lot. The 9 station long walk in with more than 2000 feet elevation was more scientific than Point Reyes but with some spectacular views.
We had problems finding the things in the description. There was also a fence that had been put there as an example, but it was only 3 feet apart.
Do you know of any examples for Earthquakes in the area? Have you ever felt an earthquake?