Bear Lake Hot Springs, Idaho

Bear Lake Hot Springs, Idaho, 2011

Last week I met a man at Dave's Bigfoot Show who related an experience he had up near Bear Lake several years ago. I asked him to write down his experience so that I could go and make a photograph later this fall. Here is his account.
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It was early August as I remember because I was dreading the summer ending and heading back to school. I was 14 years old at the time ( this occurred in 1992 ). My cousins family had invited me to go camping at Bear Lake.

I had never been to the lake and thought this would fun. We headed up to the Bear River Hot Springs located just on the Idaho side of Bear Lake. It was the first night of camping out. My aunt and uncle ( Barbara and Reed ) along with my cousin ( Blake ) were all sleeping in a small 15ft trailer they pulled up.

Myself, Sherry, Dustin and Greg were all sleeping in the tent that was across the fire pit from the trailer ( aprox 20ft ). About 30 to 40 ft to the south of the trailer was an old storage shed that was located on the property. We were camping aprox 200-300ft away from the beach at the time. We had all been up late and decided it was time to go to bed. Me being a little claustrophobic decided to sleep towards the entrance of the tent hoping it would make me more comfortable.

I remember laying there for about a hour trying to fall asleep. I was staring at the stars and the surroundings outside when a large creature walked from behind the trailer to behind the shed. It was dark, all I could really see was the silhouette of the creature. It immediately turned and walked back from behind the shed and back behind the trailer again. Within 10-15 seconds it walked back again from behind the trailer to behind the shed. This time however it stopped halfway in between and turned and looked over our way. When the creature turned it turned from the waist up. Not with it's neck. Also the creature had a very distinctive walk. It walked in long strides and with his hands curled back behind him.

I could see that the creature had what seemed to be all one size of legs and arms. They looked more like tree trunks than human arms and legs. The creature stood about 7-7.5ft tall. When it passed by there was a horrible stench that disappeared as soon as the creature left. As soon as it was gone and I was able to compose myself I woke Dustin up and told him what I had seen. He laughed and joked and said "it sounds like you seen bigfoot."

I did not know who or what bigfoot was at the time. We stayed up a little and talked about what I had seen and he reassured me there was nothing out there and it was probably someone using the restroom or something. I could not sleep the rest of the night and when morning came I woke Dustin and we went and hunted around the trailer.

We found several large footprints leading back and forth between the trailer and the shed. We showed my aunt and uncle and they informed the managers of the hot springs. They called either the DWR or the Forest service who came out and took plasters and my story. After they were done I asked to call my parents and they came and got me within a few hours. To this day my cousin does not like to talk about what I say at Bear Lake that summer.

I believe to this day what I saw that night was bigfoot.

Mount Timpanogos

Summit Trail, Mount Timpanogos, 2011

July, 2004

My family and I took a hike to the falls behind BYU family camp located in Aspen Grove, Ut. Which is I think in Utah county. On the way back we missed a turn on the regular trail and were soon on a game trail. We had traveled about a mile down this trail when it became almost impassable. I looked down to the right and recognized that we had passed the family camp and could see the end of the State Campground. We were at the far end of the campground and about 1/2 to 3/4 miles above it. I decided to take a game trail that was very over grown down the mountain side to trek back to the camp. It was about 3:00 pm and I was concerned that we would be caught on the mountain at dark. With me were my wife 50, my son 7, and my daughter 11 at the time.

After leaving the bench we were on we pushed our way through the brush to the next bench. As we made it to the clearing my daughter and I stopped cold and she said, "Bigfoot!" What we saw was a footprint about 15 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide. The imprint was at least a 1/4 inch deep in the hard dirt. My wife and son came up behind us and said the same thing. I jumped up and down to try and make an imprint (I weigh 220 pounds) and could only make a small impression. We looked around (a little because my family was frightened and I need to get them home) but we did not find any other evidence. When we got back to camp I thought I would go back and take a picture of the print. However, after looking back up the hill I wasn't sure I would find it again and my wife forbade it. We were all spooked.

Blue Diamond, Nevada

Occasionally I will slip outside the strict boundary of Utah and do some research on an area that I happen to be visiting. Last Thanksgiving we visited some friends in Los Angeles and on the way home stopped in Blue Diamond, Nevada to take a photograph.

I had been interviewed on Bigfoot's Pad radio earlier that month and they told me about several sightings in southern Nevada. I decided to check out Blue Diamond and take a photograph based on their experiences there. You can hear more about their encounters in the podcast linked above.

Since then I have found a very small report that is not very descriptive, but it sheds a little more light on the area.



Multiple Sand Yeti Sightings, Blue Diamond, Nevada, 2010, Michael Slade

Oregonbigfoot.com file# 00425



Date: , 2002

Clark county, NV


Nearest town: Blue Diamond

Nearest road: SH 160

Conditions: 

Time: early evening

Location: Near the community of Blue Diamond in Clark County Nevada



Description of event:

I saw a large fur-bearing creature walking up right through the desert sagebrush. The creature moved quickly from the brush and crossed the roadway into the sagebrush on the opposite side. The animal seemed to be ape-like but had a more upright posture and bi-ped(al) locomotion.

Layton

Bigfoot Habituation Site, Layton, Utah, 2011
 
This is where a man I've met with and spoken to several times has had several encounters and one sighting of a Bigfoot in Layton. He wishes to keep the location anonymous, so that's all I'm going to say about that here. He is using trail cameras and has called several different individuals in over the past few years. This last winter has been particularly harsh and he has yet to hear any howls or have any sightings.

The time he saw the creature it was standing under the eaves of the horse barn between the two feeders. He said it's head almost hit the eaves. It was swaying back and forth looking at him for several minutes.

Clarkston

A Random Corner, Clarkston, 2009

Original Source: Deseret News, Bigfoot: A Search In Utah, Wednesday, June 24, 2009

1970s — Some residents of Clarkston, northwest of Logan, reported that something took a midnight trip through their community, awakening and frightening residents

Riverdale Road

Creature Darts In Front Of Car At 3:30am, Riverdale Road, Ogden, 2010

'Bigfoot' Sighted Now in Riverdale
By Bert Strand, Standard-Examiner Staff 
Ogden Standard-Examiner_ February 27, 1980

RIVERDALE - "I didn't believe in them, but I sure do now," exclaims a Clearfield man who says "bigfoot" ran through the headlights of his vehicle early Monday morning. Lee Padilla of 143 W. 650 N. said he was driving east on Riverdale Road about one mile west of Weber River about 3:30 a.m. when the 10 to 11-foot tall creature loped across the highway about 25 feet away.

LONG LEGS

"It had long legs, a head like a gorilla with long, dark brown, furry hair that was in layers. The thing was very graceful. I would say it would weigh about 600 pounds. It crossed the road from north to south and I would estimate it was running about 35 miles an hour. I saw it for maybe four or five seconds," said Padilla.
The creature kept his face faced in the direction he was running, Padilla said. When asked if the incident frightened him, Padilla answered with a slow "No." and then added, "I was more curious than anything else. It didn't pay the least bit of attention to me or my car." A check of the area Tuesday by Padilla, Jay W. Barker of North Ogden and photographer John Shupe failed to uncover any tracks. The highway sides, however, were solid grass and weeds and fields in the area were hard or planted in alfalfa and even the footprints of the men did not show, said Barker.

ONE FIELD

"There was one plowed field on the north side, but we didn't find any tracks in it," said Barker who also reported seeing the creature together with three other men and several boys three years ago in the Uinta Mountains. Padilla said after the creature crossed out of the headlight beams, he turned down a small, dirt side road and directed the beam of his headlights across the field hoping he could follow and spot the creature again. The headlight beams didn't spot the creature, Padilla said, but they did attract the attention of a state highway trooper who drove up and asked him what was going on. When the trooper was told what had taken place, "he took off in a hurry and I got the impression he was going to also look for it," said Padilla.
The witness said the creature had long arms and was very erect as it ran across the highway. Padilla said the creature "moved gracefully" and not in the manner usually attributed to the slouch and swinging gait of a gorilla or member of the ape family. Padilla said the area where the creature crossed is farmland with open fields and little cover.

FEW MILES

The location is only a few miles from where sightings were reported and tracks of "bigfoot" found early in February in South Weber outside the mouth of Weber Canyon and near the Weber River.

Layton Bench

Here's the image from the Layton Bench sighting.




Bigfoot Sighted Along Layton Bench, Utah, 2011

General information:

1- Equipment: Video shot with Digital 8 camcorder (High zoom)
2- Date of filming: Nov. 11 2000 approx 7:45 am
3- Location: Layton, Utah off US 89 on the Wasatch Front mountains...( near Hobbs Canyon. )
4- Details: first spotted with binoculars, then grabbed video camera for approx 4 minutes of video.

Comments:

I believe what you are seeing is the real thing based on the location is a real Sasquatch individual, appearing to possibly have a young juvenile on its back.

It was taken in 4-6 inches of snow.

Having reenacted it recently on location it seems like about 80 yards of walking footage taking its time , even stopping & twisting & turning several times. Because of the great distance the film was taken at in the Zoom mode it is difficult to make out an incredible amount of tell -tale indications on the physical anatomy without high tech scrutiny applied such as a SAGITTAL CREST on the cranium, {in other words a cone shaped head} positive identification of juvenile on back such as arms legs swinging so forth.}

However the individual does seem to be large and pear shaped {MESOMORPH body type} especially when viewing it disappearing into the oak brush. Also extremely dark contrasted to the surroundings as you can observe.

Many researchers and notable big game hunters in the area who have had their own sightings and encounters felt that it was bonafide and not a put-on, hoax or setup. They were satisfied that it was indeed a Sasquatch in their own way of evaluating it. As well as myself.

Source: Utah UFO Hunters

City Creek Canyon

Here's the image from City Creek, near the Utah State Capitol building.



Bigfoot Sighting In City Creek Canyon, Looking Toward Utah State Capitol, 2011

Here's the sighting report from 1992:

Date: December 07, 1992

Salt Lake county, UT
Nearest town: SLC
Nearest road: City Creek Canyon
Conditions: snowing

Time: mid morning
Location: A mile northeast of UT State capital building

Description of event:

I was at lunch at my new job in Salt Lake City, Utah. When I saw something crawling through the underbrush on hill across from me. I at first thought how cool, I'm new to Utah. And my first thought was it was a wild animal, a bear. But the animal I saw came out of the underbrush and stood-up. Without any misstep it walked upright at an angle up the hill, which at my best guess would be about a 45 deg. angle. With app. 12 in. of snow - there was no slipping, no struggling and with no effort the animal walked up the hill to a cave like opening. It ducked it's head and walked in.

At At that point two of my co-workers walked up and I said look at that what is it? They definitely saw the animal that I was looking at and said "That must be a survey guy". I said,"Well where is his orange vest they always wear?" They said, "I don't know...must be something" and walked away. Surprised that they acted like it was nothing I continued to watch as the animal walked out of the opening a little down hill, then suddenly it stopped and it looked right up at me and with a sharp jerk down motion of it's head it walked quickly up the hill to a small rock-outcropping and ducked out of view. I stood there for a few minutes then, concerned about the jeopardy of my new job I quickly went back to work.

Source: Oregonbigfoot.com

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Yesterday we had between 12-18 inches of new heavy snow fall here in Salt Lake, and I have been waiting for a good blanket of snow to go and photograph this particular location.

I have driven the 'loop' that is the City Creek Canyon road nearly a dozen times by now trying to figure out where exactly this sighting location was. I have been unable to find any 'cave-like' openings, but the rest of the description of the canyon is 100% accurate. I have photographed this canyon from the north side about 2 months ago, but there wasn't much snow and I wasn't satisfied with the angle, so I re-scouted the canyon and decided to bushwhack along the eastern side of the canyon.

I had tried to locate a way to come at it from above and avoid hiking up from the road below. I ended up parking my vehicle at the UDOT facility where they store and load road-salt, and started hiking up around 10:30am yesterday morning.

The snow was heavy and it was easy to see where the deer had been earlier in the day.

I zig-zagged up a gentle slope and got up to where the steepness increased dramatically before cutting back around and ending up just below several residential homes. The land was quite steep and it was difficult to maintain my footing without slipping down. Several times I had to resort to using my hands and getting down on all fours on occasion. Although very tiring, it proved to be the most efficient way of getting around on this particular hillside with the loose deep snow.

I set up the camera, my new 8x10 Canham (shooting with the 4x10 back), and made a shot looking down a small draw at some of the underbrush. I could see across the canyon and this particular image showed the steepness of the terrain, a bit of the foliage and the other side of the canyon and how narrow it is.

After catching my breath and making one shot (the film costs about $2.50/sheet), I continued to hike across several small draws slowly gaining elevation as I could only approach it in a gentle angle due to the steepness of the hill and the depth of the snow.

I finally reached a crest where there is a small knob just to the side of a line of power-poles coming down the canyon. I liked that angle but wanted to gain some more elevation, so I bushwhacked a few more zig-zags and got up onto the next flat level of terrain, this time being at the base of the next set of powerpoles and next to a large conglomerate rock measuring about 12 feet across and about 7 feet tall.

I went over to the edge of the hill and still wasn't satisfied so I hiked again up and across another set of steep inclines up to where I had a clearing that I could set up. I didn't like that angle so hiked back down (slid quite a bit actually), and went back to the second location by the boulder. I made a shot there, went back down to the knob, made a shot there and by then I was pretty much tired out. It was sunny, about 34 deg. f. and I was working quite a sweat. My gloves were soaked and my outer shell was also very wet. I was dry, my feet were warm and it was an otherwise very pleasant hike, but I was getting tired and it was after lunch by this point.

I packed up and decided to just head straight downhill to the road then walk the road back up to my car. As I was gingerly stepping down the 45% slope, I slipped on the long slick grass and mud that covers all of the hills there, and landed squarely on my behind. I had my tripod in one hand and my other hand out for balance as the snow gave way and started to slide. I knew I wouldn't go far, and I had a pretty good idea that I wasn't going to end up in any kind of a major avalanche, but as the speed increased and I looked to my sides and saw the whole hillside of snow moving along with me, I got kind of nervous. As I looked downhill to see what I was going to end up sliding into, I saw that I would just end up being pushed into a stand of underbrush and might get scraped up a little bit. I stopped immediately before heading into the trees, with my feet propped up against some of them.

I looked around, chuckled quite a bit and grabbed my tripod, which by this point I had let go of, but slid down the hill next to me carried by the snow.

I looked up the hill and I had created a much larger snow-slide than I thought I would have. It was triangular in shape and was nearly 75 yards from top to bottom. I was impressed, as the snow was nearly a foot deep and created quite a sight.

I scrambled around the brush to the next little hill and did the same thing again, only this slide was not nearly as long nor as impressive. It was still pretty fun though. I ended up walking up the road to the car and it was just after 2pm when I checked the clock.

I mention these details only to impress upon the reader the circumstances regarding the original creature sighting report related above. These hillsides are indeed as steep as the original author asserts. The hillsides are indeed covered with large stands of brush with tall grasses between them. There is not much mud or dirt to gain a strong foot hold in and the grass, once it has been pushed down by the winter snows are extremely slippery and difficult to traverse the terrain on. In fact, in the two separate trips I made to photograph, the trip there yesterday was much easier to get around because of the deep snow and the ability to gain a foothold on the terrain.

That notwithstanding, I was carrying about 20 lbs of camera gear and was wearing big hiking boots (Sorels), had 3-4 layers of clothes on and am in generally good shape, running an average of 2-3 miles about 3-4 times a week. I am also used to moving about on various terrain in all types of weather.

I could not move around as the original author relates what he observed this creature doing. Even without my pack it was laborious and difficult at best to get up the steepest parts of the canyon. For a creature to walk upright without showing too much effort is indeed impressive. For a creature to show any kind of speed in these conditions and terrain would be very exciting to observe...especially having traversed the exact same location in reportedly very similar conditions.

It will take some time for the film to be processed and any prints to be made. They will be included here when they are finished.

Huntsville - some new sightings

Yesterday I went back up to a few areas that I had visited before so that I could re-photograph them and get a slightly different image and to get some additional details about the events that happened there.

I went back to East Layton and made a photograph in the research area I have mentioned before. I also went for a long-ish walk with the eyewitness and he pointed out several features of the area and even some of the places where he is conducting his own research. He indicated places where he has placed game cameras and showed me a tree-break that he had discovered earlier. I had never seen one, so it was interesting to put it into context.

I went up to Huntsville and photographed an area just below the dam where a sasquatch had approached a kitchen window and peeked inside scaring a mother and son. I met a current resident who knows the son from the experience and they were excited to hear the story. They had never heard it before. I was a bit surprised, but then realized they were renting from the former woman who had the experience at the kitchen window. I can think of no better way to scare off tenants than to tell them that the place was frequented by bigfoot. They were very into learning more about the area and some of the behavior that is attributed to bigfoot. They said they would pay closer attention and I told them I would come back and visit them again later.

I then went to a new area on the Ogden Divide where I had heard of a story from the east side looking downhill. The witness in this experience claimed she saw a white bigfoot that crossed the road and shoulder in five steps and went down a steep embankment like it wasn't even there. Five human steps will only put you to the shoulder of the road, and won't even get you anywhere near the slope. I am impressed at the size and speed of these creatures.

I headed down into Huntsville to follow up on a few things then learned of a new sighting down by the large waste-water treatment facility. This happened last July to a young woman and her boyfriend and they were very spooked. They returned the next day to find evidence of what they had seen. I am still fleshing out the details so my apologies for not having a longer account. I did see two sandhill cranes and it's young baby chick. That was pretty neat.

I went up the road to the Powder Mountain ski resort to make a photograph up there of a sighting by some men who were spotlighting for deer late one night. Again, the details are very interesting, but I don't have them all. I am not pursuing photographs that do not have written accounts, so be reassured that there are interesting stories forthcoming to accompany the images.

In any case, it was a very productive day, had some wonderful spring-like weather, nice clouds and nice light. A good day for photography on this project.

I had emptied, cleaned and loaded film earlier in the morning for the day's activities. I realized I am about 50-sheets behind on processing and printing. I will have a busy summer I believe catching up.