Albany County, near Laramie, Wyoming 2001 Snowy Range Mountains

I definitely want to share this with you.  This was in the Snowy Mountain Range near Laramie, WY. July of 2001 at about 9:30 a.m; Albany County by the way.

I've been on this website reading up on stories from all over the country that people have submitted of Bigfoot sightings that they've experienced. As I read them, I realize how shockingly close they are to what I saw.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my mom was dating a man named Scott. He had a four wheeler, and we'd always go camping. We went to the Snowy Range Mountain Range near Laramie, Wyoming and camped up there one weekend. Scott and his buddies were dredging for gold, and my buddy Keith and I along with my brother were riding the four-wheeler around having a good time. I went out on a solo run, and that's when I experienced my sighting.

Now, what you have to understand is the area we were in was pretty hard to get lost in. A huge, incredibly wide dirt road led directly from our camp to a massive meadow that led down off the mountain. In the other direction, about 100 yards or so down the dirt road was the creek in which the guys were dredging. The main road leads you everywhere. As I rode past the creek, I saw another dirt road leading into the woods. I figured I'd explore a little so I went in there. As I followed the road I could see a few deer skipping around in there. The area was full of trees, but plenty of sunlight got through and the area was actually very pleasant. Eventually the road narrowed and gradually disappeared, and the trees became closer together. The area off in that direction was clearly still rather unexplored and I didn't feel like getting lost in there. As I turned the four-wheeler around I was met with an incredible sight.

A pretty small black bear had wandered out of the woods and walked right up to me. I braced myself for the worst but instead the poor guy was shaking. He came right up to me and pressed his body up against the four-wheeler. He didn't look like he was very old. I was genuinely worried about him when all of a sudden what I figured to be his mother charged out of the woods about 20 feet to my left. She ran right up to me and the young bear, looked at me, and quickly nudged the little bear away from me. She looked at me again, and there was something about the look in her eyes. They wandered off and I sat there wondering what the heck just happened.  I swear I'm not making this up.  Why didn't the mother-bear attack me?  Why was the mother bear not acting defensive around her cub? Then I heard it.

It was the most terrifying scream I've ever heard. It started low, like a really deep lion's roar. As it grew in intensity, it sounded like a lion mixed with a low bass sound that oscillated a bit. The louder it got, it became higher pitched until it sounded like a woman screaming in absolute terror. It continued for about 6 seconds or so. It sounded like a woman was being slaughtered out in those woods, but yet it had an inhuman shriek to it as well. I wasted no time in getting out of that area.

I rode down the main road and I passed the guys who were in the creek. I stopped and just looked at them. They were standing there looking around and asked me if I was messing around making that scream. I said I wasn't and we then saw the two black bears crossing the creek a little ways down. You could tell they were in a hurry. The guys shrugged and went back to dredging. I rode down the main road and out into the clearing that lead out of the mountain. I saw a group of cars heading in; they disappeared into the woods to presumably go make camp somewhere. Brave souls I rode for a bit then turned around to head back to camp. As I approached the tree line, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.

I looked to my right, toward the area of unexplored woods I had been in. There was an area of trees at the base of an incredibly steep peak, and the trees went up as far as the eye could see. I spotted a figure within those trees and it was just standing there looking at me. All I could really make out was that it was black or dark brown, standing on two feet. It turned and began striding up the summit with almost no effort at all. You could actually hear the crashing of trees and shrubbery as it made its way up the mountain. I rode back to camp in a hurry. As I rode back I could hear another scream far in the distance, almost as if something were answering the first scream I heard.

Since it was our last day on the mountain, the guys had packed in their gear and we were leaving. I was admittedly relieved that we were getting out of there. Scott pulled me aside once I got back to camp and asked me if I had heard those screams. I told him I had and then I told him about those bears and what I saw going up the mountain. He was skeptical, but told me that we shouldn't tell my mom or my little brother since they'd most likely wig out.

We took the four-wheeler out to the meadow and I showed Scott the area in which I saw the thing. There was no bad smell, which are sometimes reported with Bigfoot sightings. There were full grown trees ripped right out of the ground. Branches, foliage and leaf debris was everywhere. The smell of fresh pine and sap was pretty strong. We couldn't figure out what the heck could have done that but it looked like a tornado went through there ripping the place up.

We left that day and we never told anyone else about it. The other guys that went with us to dredge had heard the screams and acknowledged that something wasn't right. They wanted to leave it at that though. I haven't been back there since, but I wouldn't mind getting a group together and heading up that way again to explore a bit.

My experience is so similar to the ones on this website (Bigfootencounters.com) that I visited that it's pretty remarkable. However, I'm still unsure of what I saw and I can't really make a conclusive claim that I in fact did see a Bigfoot. I do believe that they most likely exist but I'm still unsure.

I'm not very experienced with the outdoors. The screams I heard could have been anything really. I do think it's a pretty big coincidence that it matches up with other experiences, but that doesn't mean much. I could have seen a bear or something standing on its hind legs, but it didn't look like a bear. It looked like a hairy man, and it was huge.

But, I'm both a believer and a skeptic, so I can't really say for sure what it was. It was still a pretty insane experience though. One I'll never forget.

My name is Zach and I was the only witness.  I'm glad this site exists, because up until now I've felt pretty alone.  I'm glad others have experienced the same kind of phenomena.  It helps me deal with it for sure!  Please refrain from using my real name and email address. Otherwise, everything else is free to use.

Zach, December 15, 2009



Back to stories
Back to Bigfoot Encounters Main page
Back to Newspaper & Magazine Articles
Back to Bigfoot Encounters "What's New" page

Portions of this website are reprinted under the Fair Use Doctrine of International Copyright Law as educational material without benefit of financial gain.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
This proviso is applicable throughout the entire website.