Driving into Parkfield, you pass the school and the USGS trailer, then arrive at the Parkfield Cafe. The inside is dark and cool with a large assortment of branding irons hanging from the ceiling and ancient implements around the walls—just the kind of place geologists love. Among the hundreds of business cards and dollar bills tacked to the walls of this roadhouse are many left by geologists. The money is periodically harvested for disaster relief.
If you can't stay up all night, the Parkfield Inn across the street invites you to "sleep here when it happens." Anyone still abed at 10:15 a.m. on the 28th of September 2004 was surely awakened when the magnitude-6 quake happened. Also across the street is a small park with, among other attractions, a split bronze plaque mimicking the forces that split the Earth's crust here. And don't miss the Parkfield Water Works, either.
