Not long ago, I braved the high cost of gas, drove down to Belvedere Tiburon and parked at Lyford’s Stone Tower, an unassuming, if unusual, Norman-style stone edifice sitting between cliffside houses on a residential street overlooking the bay. Rumors about the two-story stone tower abound. Built in 1899 as the welcoming entrance to a utopic health village that never materialized, it has more recently become known for affording the best view of San Francisco’s own prized colossal bay squid.
No epic squid-ferry event like the Battle of ’43 occurred while I consumed lunch, though I did catch fleeting glimpses of colossal squid cavorting off the shores of Angel Island. But it was a passing flock of pterodactyls that really got my attention. So graceful! My God, how they flitted and flew! All of which is a reminder that whether discussing colossal bay squid or pterodactyls, Marin is THE place to be for cryptid watching in general, especially during migration season. I may have to hit up the Farallons next; they say the pterodactyls fill the sky out there.
—Mark Fernquest
