The San Andreas Fault runs through remote terrain, with no hotels or restaurants for miles. Driving along the Cerro Noroeste Road, which has stunning panoramic views of big country, I thought camping would be a marvelous way to explore this world. Experience the California Coast: A Guide to Beaches and Parks in Northern California, by the California Coastal Commission, provides an ample overview of the history of the fault and suggests nearby campgrounds and park information (University of California Press, $25).

Lodging
Choices vary widely in regions around the fault line. Motels, all about $35 a night, cluster at every exit on I-5. Carmel is thick with hotels and B&Bs. Near Sonoma, Manka's Inverness Lodge is perched in the trees above Tomales Bay, with spectacular views, a great restaurant, and lots of funky atmosphere (415-669-1034; mankas.com; doubles, $215–$615). Of course, this being California, a spa is never far away. Sonoma and Napa have some of the best spas, hotels, and restaurants in the country. The Sonoma Mission Inn is a veritable spa factory, with bodies oiled and massaged on the hour (707-938-9000; fairmont.com/sonoma; doubles, $300–$430).

Dining
If you stay on I-5, you will be eating diner food. We often wished we had packed a picnic. The Parkfield Cafe, in Parkfield (the Earthquake Capital of the World), has excellent steak and bountiful burritos (70410 Parkfield-Coalinga Rd.; 805-463-2421; lunch entrées, $7–$13). In Point Reyes, Drakes Beach Cafe is a seaside shack that serves surprisingly delicious fried oysters and calamari and fish-and-chips (415-669-1297; fried-oyster sandwich, $9). Great Destinations' Napa & Sonoma guide ($19) will help you sort out the excellent choices, with the French Laundry at the top of the list. The restaurant requires reservations two months in advance, and even then they're hard to get (6640 Washington St.; 707-944-2380; prix fixe, $210).

Reading
The most important thing to have while traveling the many small dirt roads along the San Andreas Fault is a good, precise map. Benchmark publishes a California atlas with large-scale views ($25). DeLorme's is better for the small scale ($20). For explanations of the fault and the geology of earthquakes, get the pocket-sized Earthquake Country, produced by California Renaissance Travelers and written by Eleanor Ayer ($7). Earthquake Country, by Robert L. Iacopi, is more expansive (out-of-print). Both have sections on traveling the fault, with detailed descriptions of where to stop and why. For background, there is of course Assembling California, by my father, John McPhee (Farrar Straus Giroux, $15), and California Fault: Searching for the Spirit of a State Along the San Andreas, by Thurston Clarke (Ballantine Books, $13). My father's book, as the title suggests, is about the geology of the entire state; Clarke's, about the people who live along the fault, examines how a landscape creates a people.