San Andreas Fault Tour on the San Francisco Peninsula

Our tour of the San Andreas Fault this time takes you on an urban back roads tour of where the fault can be seen along the San Francisco Peninsula. Our tour starts near Stanford University in Palo Alto, and ends where the fault plunges into the Pacific Ocean at Mussel Point near Daly City, just southwest of San Francisco.

[travelispassionromania]

Keep doing great on your presentations. I love California and your videos are informative, educational and rewarding.

[angelasepi]

Thank you so much. I totally enjoyed your series on the San andreas fault. Very well done.

[Sonoma_Coast]

You can see the fault in Portola Valley at Coal mine ridge off Alpine rd.. Several Sag ponds and visible parallel valleys. And trenches dug by USGS. Also can see it at Huddart park along Union creek.

[jamesthompson]

I just happened to trip over this video. What a great tour! I spent nearly 40 years in the area before moving to the midwest for my job. All my teen and young adult years included. Boy does this bring back memories! Many thanks. <3

[marymorris]

This is brilliant!! All students of geography should watch it.Thank you from Australia.

[warriorqueen]

I'm a learner who learns well via visual representation..therefore I didn't find this boring..thanks!

[RedAndGoldFful]

Thank you for putting this together. I did this twice now, once during pandemic and another one today. Brought back a lot of memories of my first drive. And this time I added more visits at Woodside as a starting point. Very nice sunny day, nice weather, is hot but perfectly windy. Your video is educational. Lived here all my life, and only yours give me a first hand earthquake drive through the bay area. 👍

[radarnutvfr]

Man, what a trip down memory lane! I grew up in this area but moved shortly after high school. It was neat to see places I used to know quite well.

I have always loved geology and earthquakes and made it a point to know where the main fault lines in the Bay Area ran. As a little kid I would try to see the SA fault whenever we crossed the Crystal Springs Reservoirs on the way to my grandparents.

Experiencing the '89 Loma Prieta quake was quite the ride, the quake sloshed a friend out of our high school pool during a water polo match.

Great visual info, thanks for the video!

[shirleyupvall]

All of this area was my home. I moved 5 years ago. Miss Home. Makes me sad

[keithwilliams]

Very interesting and informative video. Enjoyed watching it! Greetings from Dallas, TX. 👏🙏

[wulf]

I grew up in Portola Valley. The fault went through the playground of PV school and the orchard next door showed that part of it had shifted rows of trees during the 06 quake. The fault follows Sand Hill road and Canada Road until it gets to reservoir.

[coryjacobsen]

Informational and relaxing all in one. Thank you!

[TheOgrande]

Crazy that I drive a lot on the 280 and never knew I was driving on the San Andreas Fault.

[TroutWest]

Nice job... lots of work to make this. I have a video coming soon on a section of san andreas that very few people see or could notice from afar. More to come from the Ridgecrest fault too.

[magicunicorn]

I used to live in several towns on the Peninsula on or near the San Andreas fault line. In addition to the large, easy-to-see features in this video, if you know where to look and what to look for, there are many hidden places in Palo Alto, Portola Valley and Woodside where the fault line is visible. There's a sag pond next to a stables where Portola Rd. becomes Sand Hill Road. On gated trails in Woodside, more sag ponds are visible on private property. When I lived in Woodside, a short walk west of Mountain Home Rd. took me down the eastern escarpment of the fault towards a portion of Woodside Rd. that runs within the fault, before turning up into the hills west of it. Wunderlich County Park is located on the western fault escarpment. When I lived in Portola Valley, our house was also on the western escarpment. I would laugh when the owner of the house would proclaim, "The fault doesn't run under the HOUSE, silly! It runs under the LAWN!" Haha! Yeah, right. As if that was so much safer! Hiking trails in and near Huddart Park cross more of the fault line, but it's hard to see because it's in dense redwood forest. Another place that's great for exploring the fault line is in Southern Calif. in Wrightwood, near the Holiday Hill Ski area. If you're riding up the chairlift from the lodge to the top of the ski hill, if you turn around and look backward, you can see the fault line very clearly running along the valley below. The Valyermo and Devil's Punchbowl areas nearby are great places to see traces of the fault by driving and hiking.

[lohphat]

Also of note, the Spanish expedition lead by Portola discovered SF bay by land in 1769 by standing near the same ridge you’re on as they missed the inlet due to fog. There is a marker where the landing party is said to have first seen the bay thinking it was an inland lake. They didn’t sail into the bay until Aug 5 1775 in a later expedition.

[emmapeel]

This was so very interesting to me, a former Buffalonian ! My brother moved to CA in the '90s and for the last couple of years has been living in Sacramento.

[sifridbassoon]

Years ago I lived in San Mateo (well, Foster City actually) and would often go over to Crystal Springs resevoir. There is an amazing hike/bike trail that runs through the valley. At one point, there was a small land bridge that separated San Andreas lake and Crystal Springs, and there was a small marker showing where the fault ran. I would take my visitors there where they could stand with one foot on the Pacific Plate and the other foot on the North American Plate.

[lisalee]

I have to say that I have watched 2 other videos showing and explaining. This one really ROCKS!!! No pun intended 😁 Really Well done😄🌸 Now take us from Palo Alto to Los

[ShonnMorris]

What's interesting is that there is also a Skyline Boulevard above the Hayward Fault in Oakland.