Highway 180 - Between Grand Canyon and Flagstaff - Arizona

 
Highway 180 Between Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, 2012

About 15 years ago, in 1990, my girlfriend at the time and I took a trip from our home in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California to visit my mother. On our trip home we decided to stop by the Grand Canyon in Arizona because she had never seen it.

We got there pretty late in the afternoon and we stayed to view the sunset over the canyon. We departed for Flagstaff soon after it had gotten dark. We headed down a less traveled stretch of road as a short cut. I do admit that I don't remember the highway number, but I will look it up. It was around 8pm.

The road had next to no traffic on it and my friend and I took advantage of the time to talk. The highway was very curvy and we had just come out of a turn into a fairly long straight away when we noticed something walking down the right side of the road on the shoulder.

Note the rest of this took place in a matter of a few short minutes although it seemed like an hour. What we saw was walking upright like a man, but was noticeably larger.

As we got closer my girlfriend said "is that a bear?" It was at that moment that it became visible that our companion on the road was covered head to toe in brown to light-brown fur (hair). It was also at that moment that I realized what we were looking at. I had seen enough TV and heard enough hunting stories from my dad. I stopped the car.

Our headlights now shown into the area that the Bigfoot could see them and it stopped as well. We were about 50 yards apart at this point maybe closer. It then turned to face us. I'll never forget this moment it is burned into my memory.

At first the animal turned it's head slightly to look back, but it's head seemed to be attached at the chest so it had to turn completely to face us. We didn't make a sound. We were in complete shock. Our friend was about seven feet tall and was covered head to toe in hair. The body was somewhat without definition as in I didn't make out features like hips or gender.

The arms seemed to be abnormally long...maybe to just above the knee. The face was mostly hairless and looked...well without something else to compare it to kinda like a character from Planet of the Apes. Not exactly, but this creature definitely was from the ape family with just a touch of human looks. The eyes seemed to glow a bit green like a cat or dog in the headlights. It stood there for a matter of seconds and I could tell that it was thinking about it's next move.

It ran it's tongue across the front of it's upper teeth in preponderance. It took one small step in our direction. My girlfriend went berserk. She screamed in horror. It stopped it's forward movement, looked around, and headed into the woods near the road in a couple of strides.

We never got another look at it. My girlfriend quickly got it together and wanted out of the area. I agreed. We took off and I made a wide turn around the area that the Bigfoot had once stood. I never got the feeling that it meant us any harm, but was very curious about what we were. You couldn't convince my girlfriend of that though.

The event shocked her for life and she refused to ever talk about it again. To this day I'm sure she has blocked it out. I on the other hand will never forget it. It did take me years before I could tell my wife about my encounter. I am only posting my story for my own therapy and the hope that it will help someone else who has gone through something like this.

The whole time I could see from body language and face movement that the animal was thinking out its next move. It was very curious about us. I never felt like I was in danger.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator:

    I spoke to the witness via telephone on 5/19/05. The following details can be added to the report:

    • The encounter took place on Highway 180, sometime between 8 and 9 pm.
    • The creature was walking away from the approaching car.
    • After a quick glance, it twisted slightly at the waist and shifted its feet (left then right) as it turned around to directly face the vehicle.
    • The body hair was thick all over. The hair on its arms seemed a little longer.
    • The arms hung very low, almost to the kneecap.
    • The head was oval, “like the top half of an egg”. It had little or no neck visible, but showed some movement there as the creature glanced at them.
    •Its head and cheeks had hair on them while the eyes, nose, and mouth seemed more bare. The hair on its head was a lighter shade of brown.
    •The witness described the face as “definitely simian” (ape-like).
    •The teeth were dull yellow and human-like.
    •The witness said it had a “What the hell is that?” expression on its face.
    •The creature was between 7’ and 7.5’ tall with a shoulder width of one-third to one-half its height.
    •After a brief pause, the animal took one step towards the vehicle and the witness’ girlfriend started screaming. At this point the animal stopped and strode into the trees. It covered approximately 15’ in two or three strides.
    •They made a wide circle around the area where the animal entered the woods and immediately left the area.

Source: BFRO.net

Route 66 - West of Flagstaff, Arizona

Route 66 - West of Flagstaff, Arizona, 2012

My wife and I with our three month old baby girl in the back seat were traviling N.E. on Highway 40/Route 66 through the mountains near Flagstaff, AZ. This was right in the middle of a snowstorm. I stopped to read the map and reassess our directions. 

While looking at the map, I turned the rear view mirror light on to help see the map. in the mirror I caught sight of a huge manlike figure running up behind the vehicle, I turned to get a better look and my wife turned too. 

She screamed (Oh My God)! It was clear to see a huge hairy, black & brown colored, furry being. It was very tall, large head and long arms, running on two feet toward our vehicle. No other vehicles or tracks in the snow. Large pine trees bordered the highway.

Additional information provided by BFRO follow-up investigation:

 

The witness & his young family were on their way home to Denver from Los Angeles for the Christmas holidays in December 1973 when the sighting occurred. 



In the late afternoon, while traveling on Route 66 just west of Flagstaff, AZ, the witness hit a strong snowstorm and pulled off the side of the road to gain his bearings and check his map. He thought he might be lost because he hadn't seen another vehicle for miles and didn't even see any tire tracks in the snow covering the highway. 

He was driving a VW beetle vehicle, which he left idling on the south side of the highway.

While looking for the map, he glanced up to catch the sight of what appeared to be a large, bulky, two-legged figure running toward their stopped car from the rear. He mentioned that the figure had unusually long arms and legs for a man. 

The head appeared pyramid shaped but rounded on top. It appeared to be covered in black or brown dark fur and no clothes were observed. From his vantage point inside the car, he estimated the figure's height to be near 10 feet tall. He quickly put the car in gear (he felt threatened and that his family might be in danger) and tried to accelerate away from the fast approaching figure. The witness stated that the creature actually chased his car and came within 15 feet of the rear of his vehicle before he reached a speed of 45 mph and began to put some distance between himself and the figure. 

The figure remained on 2 legs for the duration of the encounter and at one point even raised its arms over its head. 

At the time, the witness was 24 years old and a member of the US Navy and DID NOT believe in the existence of Bigfoot type creatures. He said that he assumed any reports of those creatures, or the Yeti, were hoaxes or just imagined by people. This experience changed his perspective and he's now a firm believer in the existence of Sasquatch. He currently works for the US Mint in Denver. 



When asked why he thought it wasn't a human, he responded that they did consider the possibility of a stranded motorist seeking help, but that he didn't see anything that would indicate another human was anywhere near his position...no other vehicles of any sort (broken down or otherwise), no tire tracks in the snow, no headlights, nothing. 

Also, the figure "was too tall to be a normal human being; the head was too large and did slope down towards the shoulders. The speed at which it was running in the snow was amazing. The face was pretty much covered with the same color as the rest of its body, almost black in color. Maybe a little bit lighter."

Source: BFRO.net

Left Hand Fork - Blacksmith Fork Canyon - #2

 
Left Hand Fork, Blacksmith Fork Canyon, #2, Utah, 2012

It was in 1992, so I was 21 when this occurred. It was more of a weekend my two other friends that were with me were graduating from USU, so we thought we'd go camping for one last hoo-hah and go camping for a few days before we parted ways.

This was over Memorial Day weekend. We'd just had finals and my buddies would be gone the following Wednesday. It was a busy camping weekend, we didn't want to be around a lot of people so we eliminated Logan Canyon because we didn't want to be in an improved campground. I was familiar with the Left Hand Fork of Blacksmith Fork Canyon, and thought if we can get up to the end of the canyon we probably wouldn’t see many people.

Where we camped was pretty much the end of the line for vehicle access. The only campers we passed on the way up there were ¾ mile to the west of us and they were an older couple. When we were coming up the canyon we had stopped to look at the creek and look for fish, but we saw them there. The road at that time was pretty unpassable for even a well modified 4wd. It was a pretty nasty road from our camping site eastward up to Hardware Ranch.

We left Friday afternoon we left USU and headed to our campsite. We weren't in much of a hurry to get to the camp spot, when we arrived no one was there so we set up camp. At the time there was a beaver pond right next to the campsite. It has since been removed, I think the state has come in and trapped out all the beavers to improve fish habitat. About 4 o’clock I started fishing. There was a flat part around the beaver pond, sand and mud. I fished, my buddies set up camp.

We had some dinner and were just sitting around. It got dark, we lit a fire. Nothing out of the ordinary. About 10:30 we were just sitting around talking and we heard a big splash in the beaver pond. One of the guys that was on the trip he's from Washington and even though he grew up in a small town he'd never been out in to the woods and was very uneasy. He shot up and he freaked out. I said relax it's just a beaver slapping its tail on the water. I was familiar with that behavior spending lots of time in the woods.

Two minutes later another splash, same thing. That second time I was paying attention during a break in the conversation I got a good earful of the splash. This time it sounded a little odd. This time it sounded like a 'ka-whump'. Like a rock being thrown in to the river. I blew it off as just another beaver. This was followed by two more splashes, this time they sounded like large rocks being thrown into the beaver pond, and again I blew it off. We thought the beaver was pretty active and must not like us being there. It was pretty agitated.

After the last rock about 10 minutes later I heard another thumping sound but it was a thump being generated by something hitting the ground. I realized the sounds were coming from where I had been fishing earlier that afternoon. Went with a flashlight to where you had been fishing and that's when I saw 5-6 large rocks about the size of a bowling ball, not round like that, but about the same size. I just started inspecting the rocks and thought I didn't remember the rocks being there that afternoon. I saw that the rocks were lying on top of my footprints I had left in the sand and mud earlier in the day. The rocks had covered up my footprints from my wader bootprints. Gosh, now I know they weren't there that afternoon and I knew I hadn't gone crazy or anything. Walked back up to the campfire about 30 feet away and asked if my friends had placed the rocks. They said no and we knew that was true because we had seen each other all afternoon. I went back and we talked about the rocks and while we were discussing that we started hearing some thing trying to walk softly through the aspen groves across the stream.

We then heard a hushed low growl. We blew it off saying it was a deer or an elk. My buddy freaked out and we got him calmed down again. We heard the soft grunting again, the volume of the growl increased and as the volume increased the growl went to a harsh raspy scream and from that part on the volume increased exponentially to where the sound reverberated across the sides of the canyon.

The scream was 10 seconds in length. We could feel it in our chest. We could hear the scream elevated to a nails being drug across the chalk board noise, like a woman being killed. After the scream we heard something large bust up the mountainside branches breaking and you could tell something was just chugging up the mountainside. I'm estimating distances from what I heard it went maybe 100 ft. After that my friend who was skittish was by now inconsolable. I myself was freaking out and I didn't know what it was. I have heard cats and bears and elk and there are moose up there, and I have heard them too. This was unlike anything I knew lived up there. It was an unexplainable scream. It echoed off the whole canyon, off the walls, off the cliffs to the north of us, back down into the canyon.

We were all on edge after that. After whatever it was that made the scream had charged up the mountain everything settled down. No bug sounds, nothing. Just the stream and our campfire. We were just jumpy. I started going through my mind...hoax, elk, cougar? Just trying to find out what it was. We had no defenses with us outside of a baseball bat. Whatever it was did not sound like it wanted us to be there. It was just kind of the way that the scream gave us a feeling and the way the scream was projected to us. Made us feel that way. I was like what is that and in the mean time...like some crazy person would be yelling at us. But this wasn’t a person this was something bigger. This was an aggressive sound projected and aimed at us. The fact that it seemed this growl/scream was like in a bull horn pointed right at us. I felt like my shirt collar just vibrate...I don't know if it was the wind...I didn't necessarily feel it in the chest but it just kind of the lower harsh section of the vocalization reverberated you kind of got a vibration from that.

Everything went dead silent and after we heard the movement up the hill nothing happened the rest of the night. We stayed awake until about 2 and we didn't hear a thing. We finally went to bed.

Next morning I woke up around a little before 5 to try to catch some trout for breakfast. As I exited my tent still curious about the night before, I was in the pre-dawn light. I could look up the mountain to see if I could tell what occurred and just above us probably 100 yards still back-lit by the sky, there was a thin quaky aspen grove with some junipers by a cliff, I saw an upright large figure I observed it about 8-10 seconds and it disappeared behind a rock pillar. What I saw was mostly the figure, but it was walking upright. It reached out with it's right arm and kind of pushed part of the couple of aspen trees I got a good side profile of the arm and it was rather large. It disappeared around the rock pillar.

My buddies were still in the tent and I was in shock trying to figure out what this was but I knew I saw an arm and it was upright walking on two feet. As massive as it was it was too large to be a human. I was trying to attach the silhouette to a known animal and I couldn't do it. Somehow was that a moose walking? Antler bumped the tree? I couldn't figure it out. That was pretty much the end of it. I was concerned after the vocalization that whatever it was might come across the creek and try to shoo us out of the area, but I wasn't overly concerned enough to tear off back home with the police or sheriff department. I have seen cougar while grouse hunting and that experience with the screaming was more frightening than the cougar. I was not overly afraid, I was just a little concerned.

They got up about 9 o’clock and one of them that was with us was from the Navajo Reservation, full-blood Navajo. I discussed it a little with them once I got up. That talk got into some other discussion about creatures in legend from the Navajo Nation. But there wasn't a big discussion about what it was. If you would have asked me the following week was what I saw a Bigfoot I would have told you 'no'. Back at that time the only idea of Sasquatch I had ever had was from some books in elementary about Sasquatch. I knew About the Patterson-Gimlin film, but in my mind bf only existed in Oregon, Washington and California. I had heard the stories about the Boy Scout sightings in the mid-70's. My parents owned some property near those sightings.

In the intervening years once I moved up to Oregon I would catch a story here or there about Sasquatch and started reading. It took me fifteen years to realize my encounter was probably with a Sasquatch. During that time period I started learning about what we think we know about Sasquatch. Back then we knew nothing about rock throwing, vocalization, etc... I did not know these things about Squatches. It took me 15 years to realize I had a Squatch encounter. The sounds I have heard online on Stan Courtney's website was a high pitched scream maybe from Klamath that the last end of the vocalization the high pitched section kind of sounds like what I heard. High pitched ear-piercing screams. As a whole I have yet to come across one vocalization that sounds like what I heard that night.

Source: Eyewitness interview conducted via telephone and e-mail by myself.

Mesa Verde - Colorado

West of Mesa Verde - East of Cortez, Colorado, 2012

Two years ago (2006), I was driving on US Highway 160 in Colorado in between Durango and Cortez. I was going eastbound (towards Durango) and I saw something run across the road very rapidly from my right (south) to my left (north) on two legs. It was large and dark colored. I am a professional driver and I drive for a living. It was heavily wooded on both sides.

The witness emphasized that, as a professional driver, he is very attentive to the road. He and another bus and driver had just dropped off their charter group in Cortez and were in the vicinity of Mancos at the time of the sighting. There were no passengers on the buses and the other driver following behind did not see the reported crossing. It was shortly after sunset but still light enough to see when the witness saw a figure dash quickly across the road at a distance of approximately 150 yards ahead. The figure was on two legs, entirely dark colored, noticeably large and muscular in shape, appeared taller than a normal person and was seen for only two or three seconds at most.

There was thick woods on both sides of the road and nothing of the figure could be seen when he reached the crossing point. He also noticed a large herd of elk shortly before this sighting. He speculated that the deer-whistles on the front of the bus may have alerted or spooked the creature. His immediate thought was "My God, I think I just saw a bigfoot or something!"

Source: BFRO.net