YEAR: 2001

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: June

DATE: 30

STATE: Colorado

COUNTY: El Paso County

LOCATION DETAILS: first visitor parking lot on the Pike's Peak Highway, right turn (going uphill)

NEAREST ROAD: Pike's Peak Highway

OBSERVED: My family was on vacation in Colorado Springs, Co, last summer. We were driving up Pike's Peak on the main road, and turned off onto the first rest area parking lot.
The region was composed of large and small rock formations and was forested, primarily with pine trees. A stream was across the street. It is an area that is not inhabited by human, except for the traffic on the road: tourists visiting Pike's Peak.
I was standing on top of a large rock formation, looking down on my dad, who was about to take my picture with his camera.
I shouted, "Dad, look!" as I saw what I immediately believed to be a bigfoot 100 feet behind him. My dad did not turn around and look at the bigfoot, because he wanted to take my picture.
The bigfoot was in motion, black, and was quickly out of sight.
I know what bears look like, because I did a report for school on bears last year. This was not a bear.

ALSO NOTICED: No sounds, no smells.

OTHER WITNESSES: I, Nevan, 9 years old, was the only witness.
Just before I saw the bigfoot, my mother, brother, and two boy cousins began to walk around in the forest, and climb on the rock formations. Perhaps our activity caused the bigfoot to want to leave the area, and he or she was attempting to run away from us.

OTHER STORIES: My family and cousins got back in our car to continue our trip up Pike's Peak.
To our surprise, after we went a very short distance, not even a quarter mile, there was a green, official sign, and we read in amazement that it was displaying a Bigfoot picture.
All the way up Pike's Peak highway, there were placed "wildlife" signs about what tourists may see in that particular zone.
The sign, placed by official people was of Bigfoot.
I repeat, we did not come upon this sign until after I had seen Bigfoot with my own eyes.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 11:15 a.m.
partly cloudy (clouds are usually covering the top of Pike's Peak)

ENVIRONMENT: pine forest, numerous rock formations, hilly, remote (from humans, foothills of Pike's Peak, freshwater across the street

Follow-up investigation report:

Twice I spoke with the witness, Nevan, and his brother Nick, now 12 and 14 respectively. The parents were unavailable for interview. I spoke with the boys separately and neither had any difficulty recalling details of the event.

They came from Minnesota to vacation with their cousins who live in Colorado Springs. The sighting occurred at the Crow Gulch Picnic Ground on FS 334, Pike's Peak Toll Road. Nevan was up on a rock outcrop looking down on his father who was taking a picture of him from below. This is the view from the spot where Nevan stood:


I queried Nevan about the size and shape of the animal, especially trying to elicit from him what is *different* from a bear, that is, why he's confident it wasn't a bear that he saw. This is an excerpt from our conversation:

NH: "It looked pretty big."

KS: "Big like a horse? Big like Hulk Hogan? Or big like your dad? Was it big and thick or big and skinny?"

NH: "It was big and thick, like Hulk Hogan. It was bigger than a black bear."

KS: "Did you see arms? Legs? Did it have shoulders or knees?"

NH: "I saw it from kind of above it. I didn't see its legs, but the shoulders weren't on its back like a bear's are. The shoulders didn't move on its back as it ran like a bear's do."

KS: "What did it move like? Was it bouncy or smooth? Fast or slow?"

NH: "It moved smooth and fast. It didn't bounce up and down like a bear running. I saw it for 3 seconds, looked at my dad telling him to look, and when I looked back it was gone."

KS: "Where did it come from? Where did it go? Why do you think it was running there?"

NH: "I never thought about why it was there. That's a good question. I don't know where it came from and then it was just gone."

The grass the animal moved through is taller than it appears in the photograph. Most is around 16" tall with much of it reaching 2 1/2'. Coupled with the witness' elevated position, I'm confident this explains why he didn't see the animal's legs or feet. I inspected the site with this specific question in mind.

In addition to trees and grass, as described in the report, there is also more dense moist-site vegetation following the draw north, upslope, toward the location of Report 1359 1- 2 miles distant. In the opposite direction, the draw meets Cascade Creek and its riparian character, which continues upstream toward the location of Report 819 at its headwaters 5-6 miles distant.

Beyond topology, there is no indication that the same animal was involved in the three encounters. It's interesting, though, that the Bigfoot Crossing sign on the road near Nevan's sighting is actually where an animal would cross to move between the locations of reports 1359 and 819 if it were traveling along the creek.

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