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Road G13 leads northeast out of King City up a gentle but steady slope, cultivated fields giving way to rangeland, then scrub forest. Turn left on route 25 and go up the fault valley 11 miles, then turn right on Old Hernandez Road at the empty locality of San Benito. This dirt road returns south, up the San Benito River valley where the next four photos were taken. This was a cloudy, hazy day in October, the height of the California dry season.
The hills across the valley are east-dipping Cretaceous mudstones. The foreground is a narrow downdropped block filled with sediments of Pliocene age, plus floodplains of course. The fault at the base of the hills is a minor relative of the San Andreas fault.
All photos (c) 2003 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Ranchland, San Benito River valley. View northeast.
