YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 29th

STATE: Colorado

COUNTY: Park County

LOCATION DETAILS: (location withheld at witness' request)

NEAREST TOWN: Bailey

NEAREST ROAD: 285

OBSERVED: Resort manager and her friend were just completing their evening hike when they saw a "greyish" animal running past them at a speed so fast that at first they couldn't imagine what it would be. It was standing up-right while running and was "huge". I asked them to estimate its height but they didn't know other than it seemed to be a lot taller than them. Probably at least 7' tall. They described it as "human looking". I will encourage them to post the details themselves in the morning.

ALSO NOTICED: None

OTHER WITNESSES: Two women whose names I will keep private.

OTHER STORIES: None

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 7:45 PM

ENVIRONMENT: Forest

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Mark Taylor:

I contacted the report submitter, who was not one of the witnesses, and got contact information to immediately contact both women. I made arrangements to meet one of the witnesses at the location the next day. The following is the witness' written report she did for me a few days later:

On May 29, 2012, I saw something running through the Pike National Forest that matched the description of a bigfoot. A neighbor and I went for a hike. At approximately 7:45 p.m., we heard a very loud noise that sounded like a branch breaking. I heard a little bit of rustling, as in leaves, with the branch breaking, but very, very brief.

It was still daylight so we could see well. We looked in the direction of the noise and saw something running. At first it was partly covered by trees & bushes. It was large and dark. It was approximately 200 feet from where we were. It ran parallel to where we were standing, through the forest and down a slight hill. I could see it running for approximately 5 - 7 seconds. Some of the time we could see it clearly, part of the time it was partially covered as it went by trees. It was dark grey, almost black. It had hair and very long legs. As it ran it had kind of a ‘leaning forward’ posture. It was very fast, very long stride, and I could hear no noise as it ran. It was very dry and lots of dry pine needles & foliage but there was no noise. It ran out of sight and was gone. My mind tried to process what I was seeing and ran through the possibilities of animals. But bigfoot kept coming to mind. My neighbor and I were both silent. I did say at one point, ‘is that a deer?’ even though I knew that it wasn’t. When it was gone, finally I said, “It looked like a bigfoot." My neighbor said, “That’s what I was going to say but I thought you’d think I was crazy.” We then both discussed what we were having trouble believing – that we saw a bigfoot. We both reported the same impressions about physical description, imitated the posture, gait, etc. I know what I saw, and it was not human or any common animal. It matched the description of a bigfoot.

Investigation notes: Of the two witnesses, I will refer to them as W1 (witness one) and W2 (witness two), W2 was moving out of state the following day so they decided to take a drive out of Bailey and take one last mountain hike together. A short distance after exiting the car as they were hiking off trail when both W1 and W2 heard and then saw the bipedal subject run. The distance from witnesses to the subject was electronically ranged at 80 - 90 yds. I interviewed W2 by phone, who moved out of state, and both W1 and W2 collaborated each others observations and emotions of the incident. They both solidly agreed that the subject was estimated at 7 to 8 feet tall, bulky, covered in dark gray to black hair (not clothing). They also described body proportions including arm, leg length as well as stride and running motion, while bipedal like a human, it was slightly 'off' or 'peculiar' when compared to humans but smooth and graceful. The subject had the 'leaning forward ' posture so often described. The only sounds heard were the initial branch break and leave rustling sounds, no running sounds were heard. Investigation onsite showed very faint impressions in the dry pine needle forest floor in the area where they described it running. This is an awesome sighting as it was a close enough to get details in the daylight and by two confident witnesses. I have spent much time with W1 and have found her to be a solid, straight forward person.

Bailey is on the South Platte River, located just outside the Lost Creek Wilderness Area in the Pike National Forest.

About BFRO Investigator Mark Taylor:

Mark Taylor is a retired business professional and is currently self-employed in the classic car business. As a Rocky Mountain area native he is an avid outdoorsman and was group leader of search and rescue operations logging over 800 hrs. of field time in 5 years as well as 200 hours of professional search and rescue training. He resides in Conifer & Grand Junction CO with his wife. Mark has worked in recent years with Colorado BFRO members and attended expeditions in Colorado, Washington & New Mexico as well leading Colorado expeditions.