Sorry if this is a goofy question, but I'm wondering if you can just walk right up to the San Andreas fault somewhere near San Francisco and take a look? My junior explorer would love to see it (and so would I).

http://www.sanandreasfault.org/Visit.html

A very nice view of the area of the fault is it's location under a lake, Crystal Springs Reservoir, San Francisco's water supply, just below Hwy 280 to the west, south of the city. I grew up nearby and we were always concious of it's presence in our backyard.

Very near Mission San Juan Bautista, farther south, the actual fault can be observed, slips on the ground which demarcate the line of the fault.

Point Reyes, just north of San Francisco has a place where you can walk right across the fault.

We went to Point Reyes to the Bear Valley visitor center and walked on the earthquake trail. That's where the fence is that is split and shows how far it moved during the 1906 earthquake (16 feet!). There's no sign that says, "San Andreas fault HERE" but there are blue posts that mark the active fault line. There hasn't been much activity there for a long time so there's no deep crevice into the earth's bowels, or anything like that, but it was pretty cool to see.

Thanks for the update.