Epicenter of Quake Has Become a Magnet for Tourists

Eleven miles beneath a steep canyon in an obscure state park near Santa Cruz, the earthquake began with a distant boom, the sound of the earth rupturing along the San Andreas Fault.

Because the quake began so far beneath the earth’s surface, few paid much attention at first to the exact location. But a few weeks later, when scientists located the epicenter--the surface site directly above where the earthquake began--people grew intrigued.

Camera-toting tourists flocked to the area. Women in high heels attempted to walk the mountain trails during their lunch hours. New-age hikers with crystals hanging from their backpacks meditated at the site.

A year later, the epicenter, located at the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, is still a great tourist attraction. On weekends about 600 people a day visit the site, more than five times the number of park visitors before the earthquake.

The epicenter, located at the end of a hiking trail five miles from the park’s entrance, is not much to look at. There are no great fissures or massive landslides. In fact, the most dramatic damage near the epicenter occurred during a storm eight years ago, said Jerry Waggoner, the park ranger.

But near the hand-lettered sign describing the epicenter, there are a few, subtle signs of the earthquake. A half dozen Douglas fir trees are piled up along a trail; the trunks of a few slender redwoods, snapped in half, are scattered on a ridge; a clearing of pampas grass remains where the trees and vegetation were shaken loose and toppled down a canyon.

The epicenter is relatively undisturbed because the sandstone bedrock at the park is so hard there was very little movement during the earthquake, said Allan Lindh, a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Although the epicenter is 10 miles south of Loma Prieta Mountain, Lindh said, the temblor was named the Loma Prieta Earthquake because the mountain is the most visible geographic feature along the section of the fault that ruptured.

While the damage near the epicenter is not dramatic, tourists say it is still worth the hike. Visitors can walk undisturbed through the back trails of the 10,000-acre park, a labyrinth of towering ridges and steep canyons, lined by thick stands of redwoods and threaded by mountain streams.

“People expecting to see a fissure they can drive a truck through are usually disappointed,” Waggoner said. “But those who can appreciate just hiking through a beautiful area seem to enjoy the visit.”