Less than an hour north of the City, a lonely wedge of land juts out into the teeth of the Pacific swell. Almost completely separated from the Marin mainland by the grinding force of the San Andreas Fault (SAF), the Point Reyes Peninsula is a focal point for all kinds of natural forces.

Chief among them is the SAF, which marks the boundary between the north-riding Pacific tectonic plate and the west-sliding North America plate. The Point Reyes Peninsula sits on the Pacific plate and drifts north at the blistering rate of about two inches per year. Since the peninsula was created by coastal uplift in the Quaternary Period, the SAF has transported it at least 450 kilometers northwest of its original location.

Driving through West Marin on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard is like driving back in time. The bustle of 101 gives way to small Main Street towns like San Anselmo and then to weather-beaten barns, livestock, and droopy barbed wire fences surrounding lush green meadows, and eventually to even smaller villages like Olema and Point Reyes Station. It's not hard, especially when driving the Drake at night, to catch a glimpse of the pastoral idyllicism of another time -- a time when West Marin was the serious boondocks.

Around the peninsula, it's a federal affair. The Point Reyes National Seashore, a National Park Service site, accounts for about 99 percent of the peninsula. The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary abuts its southern shore and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area sits just across the Fault.