Earthquake Fault

Hike Review

• The fault line is a few hundred feet from the parking lot and easy to appreciate. It was much deeper than I had expected.

• There was one other car in the parking lot, but there was no one else at the fault line.

• There was a clean (but smelly), vault-style bathroom in the parking lot.

• Afterward, we hiked north to Earthquake Dome but did not reach the peak as we were stymied by manzanita bushes.

What I Learned

• The off-trail hiking to the top of Earthquake Dome was difficult with it being overrun with sharp manzanita bushes. After hiking up half the hill in an agonizing slow fashion, we gave up and hiked down. Next time, it’s been good to attempt this with long pants.

What Happened?

1.7 miles, 1 hr 11 mins, 262 ft of ascent

We ate a large meal at the delicious Noodly restaurant and we decided to hike around a bit to see if we could wake Cassie from her catatonic state (she finished a large pho that had a bit too much noodles for her).

We parked at the almost empty parking lot and started towards Earthquake Dome, following a GPS track that I had saved from somewhere years ago. Once we hiked off the well-groomed fire roads, we hit manzanita bushes and our progress was as slow as molasses. Still, we persevered and started to gain elevation.

After about 30 minutes, we found ourselves only halfway up the hill with diminishing light. We decided to call it quits and came back down the hill with as much speed as we could muster through the bushes.

When we got back to the parking lot, we quickly made our way to the fault line, took some pictures, and headed back to Ramona.