I used to live in the Fresno California area before the turn of the century. I'm very curious if others have seen a "beast" that I'm about to mention as well.
One evening in the late fall of 1997 I was driving a friend home to Sanger, CA after we'd been in Oakhurst earlier in the day. It was getting late, around 9:00 or 9:30 at night when my friend started screaming hysterically about a silhouette in the sky. I couldn't understand what was going on and immediately popped on my hazard lights and pulled over to figure out what on planet Earth could be wrong.
My blood ran chill. To my utter horror I saw the scariest sight I've ever witnessed. Flying above us, lit by the moon, was a DRAGON. It seemed to be high, but there were no trees or anything to give proper perspective. This monstrosity was enormous. It was absolutely not a bird since the moon glinted off of it and I could see that it was "shiny" and very much lit in such a way as to show that it was very big.
I have to say my gut tells me it was as large as large as a grey whale. I've seen these many times off the coast of California. It had that same "feel" to it when I saw this hauntingly/terrifying (and somehow majestic) creature gliding through the sky. It would flap off and on, but it seemed to be gliding more than anything for the time I saw it. The wings seemed perhaps translucent, but I couldn't tell entirely since it could have just been the moonlight lighting them.
I just can't say it looked like pterodactyl depictions I've seen. There was something that was much more "dragon-like" about it...
The creature appeared to be flying towards the Oakhurst/mountains region.
My friend was insane for at least an hour afterwards and I had to drop them off with family since they could not tolerate being alone after this out of this world experience.
Has anyone experienced or heard of such a sighting before?