Stop 1: Carmel Valley Fault, Torrey Pines Grade
This stop is on Torrey Pines Grade, south of the entrance to Torrey Pines State Reserve. The best parking spot is on the east side of the road, in a large pull-out next to some large Torrey Pine trees.
The photograph shows the light-colored Eocene age Torrey Sandstone with large concretions in it, overlain by the brownish-orange Pleistocene age Linda Vista Formation (which we will see in closer detail at our next stop.) The Torrey Sandstone is mostly a beach sand, deposited about 47 million years ago. In this location it dips slightly to the south. The Linda Vista formation unconformably overlies the older Torrey Sandstone.
In the central part of the photograph, the Carmel Valley Fault can be seen. It displaces both the Torrey Sandstone and the Linda Vista Formation, thus being younger than the rocks. The Carmel Valley Fault is also exposed along the coastal bluff to the west of this location.