A listener writes “About 20 years ago, I headed out alone into the desert mountains somewhere outside of St. George, Utah. It’s been a long time, so I can’t remember the exact location. I was driving a little hatchback and decided to stop for the night at a random pull-off that seemed good enough. It wasn’t an official campsite.
I built a fire and sat there in the glow, but beyond maybe ten feet, everything was completely black. You couldn’t see a thing past the firelight.
Then, out of nowhere, I was hit with this overwhelming, primal fear. Absolute terror. I knew something was watching me.
I’ve camped alone in remote places plenty of times, and I’m familiar with that uneasy feeling you get when animals are nearby. But this was different. Stronger. More urgent. Every instinct I had was screaming that something was out there.
Then I smelled it.
That was the worst part. The smell was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before or since. It smelled like some massive animal with the most foul, overpowering stench imaginable musky, rotten, sweaty, almost unbearable. Like having your face shoved into the filthy crotch of some huge wild creature.
I moved between the car and the fire to try to sleep, thinking maybe that would feel safer. But I could still smell it, and whatever it was had to be just beyond the edge of the firelight. I sat there frozen, eyes wide, barely breathing, listening. Every so often I’d hear a slight movement, like it was shifting its weight or adjusting its position.
Eventually, the combination of the smell, the fear, and the feeling that this thing was incredibly close became too much. Every nerve in my body was telling me to get out immediately. So I threw my stuff into the car and left right then in the middle of the night.
At the time, I assumed it had to be a bear or maybe a mountain lion. What else could it have been? But in the years since, I’ve encountered both bears and wildcats in the woods, and none of them carried that smell.
After hearing other people describe similar experiences, especially the intense fear and the overpowering odor. I’ve started to think maybe what I encountered was a Bigfoot.
Thanks for your show. I enjoy it very much.”
Mike L
good thing you left or you might have ended up a missing persons mystery. nothing that stinks that bad, can be a good omen. usually, the smell is mixed with a supper smell — rotten eggs. danger.
Charles R
Certainly a good chance that is what you encountered. Occasionally one hears about these in desert climates. However there are pine forests in the mountains north of St. George for them. Hope all that nuclear bomb radiation from tests in the 1950s north of Las Vegas, that drifted over to St. George area did not affect them much.