Preparing for Japan's Invasion

Just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, towering high above the lovely metropolis of San Francisco, are the Marin Headlands.

As we ascended these coastal mountains yesterday afternoon, in the third leg of a three-legged road trip celebrating spring break, the views took our collective breath away.




"I've always wanted to come up here," said one of the kids. "This feels a bit like a roller-coaster," said another, somewhat uneasily. The third just stared, open-mouthed.

As we crested the peak and assumed the position to head more or less straight down the western slope toward the Pacific below, I paused, checking my brakes, and trying to settle my stomach, which was jumping about. This truly is one of the most terrifying roads you could ever drive in the Bay Area.



We descended cautiously, snapping photos along the way, none of which can do justice to this truly magnificent vista. From these heights, the ocean presents itself in a vast palette of blues, greens, turquoise, white, purple, and white.

It also appears almost peaceful.

Round a hairpin curve, and there, suddenly to the south, San Francisco shimmers like Oz, ever so briefly, then disappears again from view, as if a mirage.



In our time, Marin Headlands has gone from being a classified military reserve, pocked with bunkers batteries, the SF-88 Nike Missile silo, and banks of radar towers, to a national park.


(Hawk Hill)

The centerpiece of the area is Hawk Hill, where each fall, tens of thousands of hawks, kites, falcons, eagles, vultures, osprey, and harriers swoop down to feed among the abundant small mammals that inhabit these parts.



We spotted several raptors, then slowly drove down to Fort Cronkhite and Rodeo Beach, now a wildlife preserve and conference center, complete with a Hostel, where the winds were whipping from the now wild-appearing Pacific across the lagoon inland.

The military history of the Headlands dates to the 1890s, but the most active period was during World War II, when U.S. military officials feared Japan would follow up on its assault on Pearl Harbor to invade the West Coast.

That never happened, and slowly, as the Cold War wound down, the military finally retreated from the area, leaving yet another bit of Northern California's paradise to those of us curious enough to explore it.

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Photos by Julia, Dylan, and Aidan.