Day 2: Coalinga to Santa Rosa

 

Wakeup Call

We didn't get to sleep until near 1130.  awaken at 530 by the sounds of chirping birds . . . everywhere.  I went out to investigate.  Was treated to a stunning sunrise over the Sierra Nevada and .. . you guessed it even more Birds.  Apparently this is either the best part of staying at the Coalinga East Motel 6 or the worst.  For us it was a reminder that we were now somewhere different and had ground to cover.

Windy times

Today's journey had us going to Santa Rosa by way of San francisco.   This was our day to say "goodbye" to the pacific plate, and goodbye to the ocean.  We  also have friends in SF who we had not seen in 6 years.  So it was an hour North along I-5 then West along CA-152 to US 101 North.

The highway across the coast ranges, also known as Pacheco Pass was one the windiest part of our drive.  This makes sense as June tends to a time a strong temperature contrasts between the inland valleys and the coastlines Here.  Or Eastern boundary current keeps the coast quite chilly, while the direct sunlight very efficiently heats up the land.  I attempt to explain as much in this video:

Saw and old friend the other day . . .

Our journey through San Francisco had 2 objectives: 1 visit with an old friend, 2 say goodbye to the Pacific Plate and the to the ocean.  As we all know this is a time when we are coming out of worst Pandemic in 100 years.  California, especially the coastal cites have done an epic job distributing and accepting the Vaccines.  We are emerging into a world just different from the one we left.  We miss our friends, our loved ones, our connections.  It's also more apparent than ever that so much of what we hope to be / accomplish can end all to quickly through no fault of our efforts.  It does sort of reset priorities.   So here we are in different city from the one we left 24 hours ago.  Like San Diego, hilly, quirky, expensive, and old by the standards of Cities in California.  Also different, narrower streets, colder, more aggressively what it is.  It's the first time we really felt the different sense of place

Mussel Rocks and Farewell to the Pacific

So we don't really spend a lot of time on the San Andreas in this blog, in part because this is one of our chances to really get to some more remote locations, whereas various parts of San Andreas can be done over a regular holiday weekend.  That said, there is one SAFZ field spot that seemed right for this stage of our journey:  Mussel Rock in Daly City / Pacifica.

These little rock just off the coast mark SW edge of the San Andreas Fault zone.  everything to our left is moving North with respect to all that is at our right.  This cove is also the Epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.  I always tell people that any landscape is a contest between several very slow processes.  In this case the most distinct impression of the San Andreas Fault is a subtle bend in the coastline at Mussel rocks -  a testimony to the erosive power of the waves versus slip events on the fault moving that promontory into the line of attack.  Sometimes when rocks of stronger lithology are brought out in front of weaker rocks, the "hook" shape in the coastline is a bit more prominent (For example La Jolla, CA around the Rose canyon Fault).  We also have more rapid events obscuring our fault here:  the 1906 earthquake triggered a massive slump on the steep coastal bluffs, covering other surface expressions of the fault itself.  you can see this toward the right side of this frame.

The Bluffs themselves are a contest between uplift related to oblique compression on the SAFZ and the actions of waves and other events.  We found a park near the highest point on the Bluffs and were impressed by 2 things:  1.  lack of decent vistas 2.  the intensity and frigidity of the wind.  While the pictures capture some of these, but a video helped us capture the wind.

This will be our last visit to the Pacific plate for awhile now, and our last time seeing the Pacific. for a bit.  After a bit of navigational mishap in San Francisco related to road closures and a golf tournament, we made our way across the Golden Gate and points north, finally leaving Salt water at Petaluma.  and celebrating the end of the day at Henhouse before visiting with family in Santa Rosa.

total distance ~ 600 mi

distance covered today 280 mi