YEAR: 1998

SEASON: Winter

STATE: Utah

COUNTY: Utah County

LOCATION DETAILS: in the observed part

NEAREST TOWN: Lindon

NEAREST ROAD: I-15

OBSERVED: My parents live at the base of Mount Timpanogos in Utah county. Right in front of Timpanogos sits another mountain called Baldy. We call it baldy because there are no pines or aspens on the front side of it. All the pines sit on the north side of the mountain, but everywhere else is very dense brush and very tall. The only way to walk through it is on a game trail and even then you still get all scraped up.

This incident happened in my backyard on a winter night around 10 - 10:30 in around 1998 when I was about 14 years old. At this time there were not too many houses around and we have about 5 acres in the backyard up against the mountain. Behind the five acres was nothing until you hit the city of Pleasant Grove. Now, there are new houses all the way back. In the winters there are always deer, elk, and cougars back there. We've even had bighorn sheep come down that far too.

My family and I were in the basement playing ping-pong. We have a walk out basement sliding door that goes out into the back yard. Right out the back door we have a small area of cement to play basketball and right off the side of that there is a ravine that slopes down off the back side for a 100 feet or so and its thick with acorn trees and other trees. Our neighbors fence between our property and theirs runs on the property line down to the bottom of the ravine….. anyway…. On this night I let my yellow lab out the back door cause he was scratching to go out and I thought he had to go to the bathroom or something. As soon as I let him out he stopped and turned to his left and faced towards the neighbors fence and freaked out. He was a very protective dog but I have never seen him so protective in my entire life. Its hard to describe because you would just have to be there.

The moon was full and setting in the sky to the side where the neighbors fence is. I wondered what he was barking at because if it was a cat or another animal he would have gone after it, but he stayed in the same spot and even backed up a little bit. So I knew it was most likely a human being by the way he was acting. I turned on the back light and stepped out to look over at what ever he was barking at. I didn’t see anything at first because the light made it hard to see, but then I noticed what it was he was barking at. The moon was directly behind whatever it was and overhead so it created a silhouette and right on the fence line, which is only 20 to 30 ft. away,

I could see the shape of half its head sitting above the top of the fence. I just remember thinking… wow that’s a tall person wearing a beanie. The shape of the head made me think that someone was wearing a beanie and it made the head shape a perfect oval. I had my little brother who is 2 years younger then me come stick his head out to see and he came over and said, “Oh, I see it.” I didn’t even think to try and talk to the person, even though they were chillin in our back yard. For some reason I knew it wouldn’t answer or something… It didn’t even cross my mind to talk and ask what they were doing back there. It lasted about a minute or two and then I saw the silhouette drop its head a little bit and turn towards the ravine and walk down into the trees. When I saw it do that I tried to listen to its footsteps but heard absolutely nothing walking down into the trees.

I have always believed it was a bigfoot. We are avid hunters and bow hunters, and spend tons of time in the mountains. My father has a few different friends that have seen a bigfoot or had experiences, but my Dad thinks its all a joke. I don’t though. He even makes fun that I believe in something like that. I don’t know what it was that my brother and I saw that winter evening but I know that Im 6’3” and that fence I'm talking about is as tall and even a little taller than I am. I lived in that house for 20 years. My parents still live there, and there was nobody in their neighborhood or that area at that time who was that tall.

ALSO NOTICED: the next day after school i went home and tried looking for foot prints and all that stuff but the snow had melted during the day and i couldn't tell.

OTHER WITNESSES: 2, my brother and I

OTHER STORIES: nope, just the stories i've read in the website. but lots of others from different parts of the state.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: in the observed part

ENVIRONMENT: in the observed part

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Chad Hamblin:

When I talked to the witness by phone he emphasized how upset the dog was and said he’s never seen him “freak out” like that. He said the dog was bristled-up from his tail to the top of his head. He said that the dog will normally not hesitate to lunge a little toward a person - but in this case he backed up a bit.

In the written report he said the sighting lasted about a minute or two, but when I talked to him he clarified this and said he wasn’t looking at the creature the whole time. He said he saw it for about ten to fifteen seconds, then stepped back into the house to put the dog in, and then looked back out to see if it was still there. When he saw that it was still there he started wondering if it was just a tree in the neighbor’s yard he’d forgotten about. He then saw it duck and turn, and the silhouette of its head disappeared from view. He saw it about ten seconds the second time.

The witness told me that at the time he thought what he saw was a person, by default. He didn’t think of it being a bigfoot until he did some reading on the BFRO website and started thinking about that possibility. He said it was just recently that he went and stood next fence and realized just how tall the creature would’ve have been. He estimates it was between 6’8” and 6’9”.

I have no doubts that the witness is sincere and credible. Even though he saw only a silhouette of a large head on a tall animal, there's a very good chance the tall animal was a bigfoot, due to the location. The report therefore deserves to be listed in this database as a public Class B report.

About BFRO Investigator Chad Hamblin:

Chad Hamblin is a life sciences/biology teacher with an interest and background in wildlife and the outdoors. He lives in a rural community in northeastern Utah. He participated in the first Utah BFRO expedition in 2007, as well as the 2009 and 2010 Utah expeditions. He attended the Wyoming expedition in 2008, the Bluff Creek California expedition in 2011, and the Idaho expedition in 2013. A few months ago Chad experienced a bigfoot encounter while hiking alone in Utah's Uinta Mountains.

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