Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “Hey Wes. I’ve been debating writing you and telling an encounter I had in the Colorado Rockies. I dont know if it’s really worth airing on your show, but it is true and to me, unforgettable.

I’ve lived in Colorado for a long time. I’m very much into backpacking, climbing, snowboarding, all the wilderness activities. Im very familiar with animals too, I’ve been going on deep wilderness adventures for many years now while studying the flora and fauna of many locations . The more remote, the better. The only things I watch are nature/animal documentaries.

This particular encounter happened while my girlfriend and I were camping with our truck off Forest Rd 316 in-between Mancos and Durango in the summer of 2019.

It’s high elevation dispersed camping on BLM there. We found a spot on the side of a mountain, set up our tent, made dinner and crawled inside the tent to lay down. Generally I fall asleep way before her and was out almost immediately after a day of hiking Mesa Verde. Sometime in the middle of the night she grabs onto me and starts shaking me until I wake up and says “Listen!”. It took me a couple seconds to come into it but I immediately heard what she was hearing. Off in the distance, there was a heavy snarling, breathing noise that didn’t sound like anything I would attribute to any acknowledged animal. I sat up and we stared at each other in the blackness of the tent as this thing came into our campsite, and next to the fire pit. We heard it step on a cooking pan we had left by the fire and that’s when Sarah unzipped the tent and ran for the truck.

I have to admit I was so perplexed by what this thing was I just sat in the tent in awe of what it sounded like. It made it’s way right up next to the tent and it sounded as though its mouth was up over the tent. The best I can describe it would be to compare it to a Hollywood demon or maybe even a dinosaur. I say this because the lung capacity was absolutely tremendous, and it was making a growl/groan/snarl with every breath, very very loud. I kept trying to imagine a bear or moose or even a cow making the noise as I sat there basically frozen in disbelief, but I honestly have never heard anything like that before, except maybe in the movies. It stood over my tent for about a minute making these insane breathing noises. I was really wishing I had joined Sarah in a sprint for the truck at that time. I don’t know why I stayed, I didn’t really feel any fear until it got right next to/over me. I feel silly saying this, but I know exactly what black and brown bears sound like, and I have thought about this thing often. It was nothing they teach you about in biology class. Absolutely shocking and horrifying. There was no moon to top it off that night.

Eventually, it began moving away from the tent up the up the rocky road we were on towards deeper wilderness in the San Juan Nat forest. I will never forget it as long as I live. Sarah and I have since broken up, but we have discussed it many times. I have major regrets not getting out to the safety of the truck and putting a light on whatever this thing was. I’ve seen several UFOs out in the Backcountry but nothing this up close and personal with the paranormal. Not a great story compared to some of your others but I wanted to share. I guess my biggest question is why the establishment/authorities/institutions etc deny things like this.”