A bit of history and the occult on Lloyd Lake
Among the wild animals living in Golden Gate Park, besides corralled buffalo, are feral cats, raccoons, and two or three coyotes that appear and disappear like phantoms, often at sunup or sunset. If you happen to catch sight of them, don’t be surprised if they look you right in the eye before moving on, like fugitives on the run—but a slow, casual, Butch Cassidy kind of run. The message is: “This is our territory, and we reserve the right to go after small dogs and other prey you may have with you.” And they do.
There are all kinds of birds in the park. Occasionally, you may see store-bought birds that have flown the coop, or various species of duck. At Lloyd Lake, for example, between JFK Drive and Crossover Drive, you’ll see Pekin ducks (aka Long Island ducks), Muscovy ducks (bred from pre-Columbian times and native to Mexico), Campbell ducks (the khaki-suited characters originally from England), mallards, and geese.
Info
Address John F. Kennedy Drive & 23rd Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121, www.golden-gate-park.com/lloyd-lake.html | Public Transport Bus: 29 (Cross Over Dr & Fulton St stop) | Tip John F. Kennedy Drive is closed to cars on Sundays, making it the perfect time to take a bike ride along the seven miles of paved trails leading you by lush waterfalls and gardens. Equipment can be rented at Stow Lake Bike & Boat Rentals (50 Stow Lake Drive, +1 415.752.0347).
Lloyd Lake is also interesting for other reasons, including the marble portico standing on its shore, which originally came from the Nob Hill home of Alban Nelson Towne. Towne was a 19th-century railroad man, a clever and respected technocrat, who acquired a small fortune. The portico is all that was left after the 1906 earthquake destroyed his home. Three years later, Towne’s wife donated the structure to the park, where it’s become known as “Portals of the Past.” On a cold, foggy afternoon it looks like something out of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw.
Actually, the portico is one of a few locales in the park where occult “sightings” have been rumored. Also called the Shadowbox, it was a favorite haunt of early-20th-century spiritualists, including the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, who in 1923 imagined the setting as “a place that opens the receptive soul to dangerous influences. It should not be visited carelessly.”
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