Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “I have had sighting in 1981. I was on a trip with my parents to Yosemite. We were camping in Camp Curry in the tent cabin section on the hill. Our family camped often.

My parents had lived in the Danville Area near San Francisco and frequented Yosemite during that time. When they moved further South near Van Nuys they continued to visit Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows at least twice a year.

We had just arrived in camp and it was the early in the day. As I was getting older my parents would allow me to venture off by myself for small hikes. I immediately took off up the hill past the tent cabins eager to hike before nightfall. I made my way up to the cliff wall to get a closer look and explore. I started to feel a strange change in my surroundings as I near the granite wall.Moving forward up the step terrain I noticed an opening in the cliff wall I had never seen before. The rock opened up into a strange cave that had part of the river running through it as it descended into the depths.

I was confused I thought I knew everything about Yosemite. I had never seen anything like it. As I was only 13 I didn’t worry about it too much I thought it might be a new discovery. I continued further up the hill into the woods. I was trave9 further than I had disclosed to my parents but I was certain I could run back in time as not to worry them. As I walked up the hill I realized nothing looked familar anymore and instead of more treeline an enormous Valley opened up. About 300 yards up the summit I noticed what looked like a silver back gorilla only much larger sitting in the grass looking out at the valley as the sun was breaking across the valley wall and trees. At that age I watched a lot of Mutual of Omaha world’s of nature. I had many golden book guides on animals and I knew my primates. I stared thinking their must have been a release from a zoo somehow. I started to realize by comparison to the nearby redwoods how very large this animal was. Then the creature noticed me. It slowly turned it’s head as if it could hear my thoughts. I could see it was not a gorilla at this point.

It had deep set eyes and a strange tuft of hair in a ring around it’s face. It froze. It froze so still I started getting confused at what I was seeing. At that point I snapped out of my confusion and my inner voice said run back, run like you have never run before, your toast if you fall. Run or your parents will never find you. I ran like a track runner. The whole area seemed unfamiliar. My inner voice said keep running its an illusion keep going you’ll get back. I ran for what seemed like 2 hours and started crying. I finally popped out on the other end of this strange changed area. My mom and dad were there I hadn’t been gone long but the look on my face scared them and I was soaked with sweat. When I caught my breath I explained what had happened. My mother didn’t want to hear it and wanted to leave. My Dad tried to rationalize to me that I must have gone to sleep and had a dream.”