YEAR: 1963

SEASON: Spring

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Jefferson County

LOCATION DETAILS: Headwatters of Dosewallips River, Royal Basin near the largest lake and rock overhang in the medow.

NEAREST TOWN: Brinnon WA

NEAREST ROAD: Road off Highway 101

OBSERVED: I was about 13 or 14 at the time, and went with a group of church kids on a hike up into the Olympic Mountains. There were about 10 kids and 4 adults leaders. We hiked up the Dosewallips River headwaters to the Royal Basin where there are a couple of small lakes. We made camp and eat dinner then went to bed. The adults stayed near the campfire area. One group slep under a large rock overhang. I chose to sleep a little away from all their noise of the others.
I remember looking up at the stars and the jagged mountains. After a while I looked up again and saw that the mountains appeared smooth! I was thinking, how could this be, when the "smooth" mountain started to sway a little. I smelled a definite skunk cabbage smell. I then realized that this was not the mountain but the silouette of a large animal. I was seeing its head and shoulders as it was standing at the foot of my sleeping bag. I pulled the sleeping bag up over my head. Later I looked out and it was gone. The mountain was back to its normal jagged shape.
Then the group down by the overhang rock started yelling. "Whats that over there?" "It looks like a big gorilla!" "Look you can see it, its moving!"
The adults were upset at all the talking and screaming. I heard each of the adults in turn saying to knock it off and get back to sleep!
Not one of the adults could have been pulling a prank. They were all off to the lake side as I could hear. The next morning there was a lot of talk of what they saw the night before. The adults thought the older kids were just trying to scare the younger ones. I think they were telling the truth.

ALSO NOTICED: It was in the spring time as there was still snow in the shadows. The lake had no ice on it but the fish had large heads and small bodies after being under ice the winter months.

OTHER WITNESSES: The group of boys who saw the creature by the rock overhang about 5.

OTHER STORIES: I talked to a antique dealer who heard a loud moaning scream and heard something smashing a path in the brush. There were a lot of broken branches when they inspected the next day. But this was to the south west of Hoodsport WA.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 9 PM at night

ENVIRONMENT: High mountain valley.

Follow-up investigation report:

Witness was on a church outing for two days. He remembers watching the horizon and the jagged peaks, he was located away from the main group to be alone to watch the goats on the other side of the valley, rolling over and then turning back over to see that the peaks he noticed earlier were now rounded. This time the horizon was moving back and forth, causing almost a feeling of nausea for him.

He said the silhouette had been watching for more than two minutes, then walked away from him. He later heard the other kids saying something about seeing a gorilla or monkey and that it was walking away from them. The adults, one them the pastor, told them to quiet down, that they shouldn't try to scare the other kids.

The next morning none of the adults believed the children, and they continued on down the trail and returned to the camping area. Nothing came around the camping area the next night nor did he notice anything else out of the ordinary. The campers were kept closer to each other because of the ruckus the night before. There were no tents pitched for that camping trip. Everyone was under the night sky in sleeping bags.

Two campfires were going that night and the one near the witness was dying out and so no other light than the evening stars. Out of the fifteen children on the trip, nine of them witnessed a biped walking away from the camp.