Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “I’ve had a few odd experiences in the Stanislaus and the areas around Yosemite national park. My wife and I experienced weird lights or orbs and some screams in Bear Valley CA in the Stanislaus national forest while staying at the bear valley lodge.

We were watching a thunderstorm over the mountains behind lake alpine, when we noticed how silent it was around the lake, like dead silent. The lightning storm went on for quite a while, and while we were sitting in the heavy silence, watching and waiting for thunder that never really came, we started to notice random lights that looked almost like flashlights moving very quickly back and forth along the ridge and in the tree line below. At first, I thought it was just some people out for a night hike, or some kids trying to get a better look at the storm, but then we noticed that the lights. They moved in spurts and then shut off randomly, then reappearing somewhere a little farther away. I am not sure if it’s related, but I’ve heard enough stories from your podcast about orbs. We sat out at the lake till about 11-11:30, watching the storm and these strange lights which eventually seemed to disappear on top of the ridge where i know from hiking that ridge the next day there are no actual trails or anywhere to go other than a drop off on the other side of the mountain.

The lights we saw would have had to be hovering over the tree line for us to see them from where we were at. The second night we returned to the lake, we had known that a concert was happening in the valley that night, but it ended around 9:00, with a small bonfire happening after till 10-10:30. The concert ended at a hard 10:30 but once the valley drifted back to the night time silence we started to hear some strange vocalizations off in the distance, like a howling moan almost like something was trying to imitate the music that was playing earlier from the concert.

It was as if the notes were drawn out slightly too long for a human. My wife pointed it out, and as we were about to pack up and leave, she stopped me while I was zipping up my backpack, motioning for me to listen and we heard this almost melodic moaning from the end of the valley where the woods get thicker. We returned to the hotel to get something to eat and then go for a late night walk in the small town around the hotel. We found a vacant parking lot that had a large flatbed trailer loaded up with 2x4s. I’ve read about the wood knocks and calls, and I grabbed a 2×4 and smacked the closest tree and let me tell you the knock that came out was ear shattering loud in the silence. The bugs and critters had not started back up, so it echoed loud and long. My wife immediately grabbed it from my hands and put it back whispered kinda scared and kinda laughing ‘Do NOT do that again. Let’s go!’ It was around 1-1:15 am at this point and we made our way down to where the road loops around to the disc golf parking lot.

As we approached the lot, I heard something off in the distance that sounded like a scream and grabbed my wifes arm we both stopped and listened. We heard what sounded like a booming shout, followed by a long drawn out piercing scream. It sounded like someone was murdering a witch with an incredible lung capacity. We walked toward some picnic tables on the edge of the lot to see if we could hear any better.

As we got a little closer we heard a very loud and distant whoop followed by a long heavy like bellow/roar which was quickly responded to by another whoop and the same long drawn out scream we had heard a few minutes before. My wife and i were discussing it the next morning, she said that it had sounded like a loud whoop then a long yell, and then another, higher pitched yell followed by that scream. The scream was so long and disturbing my wife had asked if we should wake the rangers worried someone might be in trouble or getting murdered, but at that point I was positive about what we heard, especially with her confirmation. Being thoroughly creeped out, we quickly walked back to the room and went to bed.

The next day I was listening to some Sasquatch vocals to see if I could match up the sounds and it sounded a lot like the Sonoma Sounds, but a more piercing scream. We went out by the lake one last time the next night, and it was so silent that we were too uncomfortable to stay very long. On the ride back from the lake that night, we noticed two deer acting strangely on the side of the road. It was like they were afraid to go into the woods, it looked like they were going to cross the road, so I slowed to a stop. They began to cross then stopped, turned around to the woods and then stopped almost crossing again like they were afraid to go back the way they had come but also like they were afraid of going into the woods across the road. They hovered near our car for a few moments before slowly creeping off to just inside the tree line heads up and very alert before we took off.”