Tale of the Yeti, a true story
This story is a true account of the events that occurred surrounding the Yeti sighting. I was approximately twelve inches from this amazing creature.
A Yeti is a type of Sasquatch or Big Foot. They live high in the mountains. I’m not sure if I saw a Yeti, a Sasquatch, or a Big Foot. I call it a Yeti because we were high in the Rocky Mountains.
Our story begins in the state of Virginia on August 8, 2012. My wife, Becky, and I live in Virginia, very close to Shenandoah National Park. It is a beautiful and scenic area.
We live on top of Blue Mountain, not far from Skyline Drive. Over one hundred miles long, Skyline Drive is a highway built on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. There is a great deal of wildlife and magnificent scenic views.
Becky and I have seen just about every kind of animal but nothing like we saw that fateful night. That experience was priceless and one that we will never forget. I am going to tell you all about it.
We decided to take a summer vacation and visit our grandchildren in Salt Lake City, Utah. We began our journey from Virginia to Utah by car. It took us three days of driving about 8 hours each day. We stayed each night in a motel and ate plenty of junk food.
Some states are very boring to drive across. All you see are field after field of corn and some states are mile after mile of prairie grass. But all of the states have interesting and beautiful places.
Utah is a state of mountains, canyons, and deserts. It is rugged and diverse with many national parks. It is a great place to visit and explore with dramatic views and natural wonders.
We enjoyed a week with the kids and grandkids. While planning our trip home we decided to visit Yellowstone National Park. So we left Utah late Sunday morning on August 19 and headed up through Idaho toward Yellowstone Park.
It was such a beautiful day and we traveled through the park for hours seeing the sights. What an awesome place! It seems as though you are on another planet.
Yellowstone is actually a giant volcano high in the mountains. There are geysers and strange sights everywhere. The whole place smells like sulfur and it seems like it could explode any minute.
We left Yellowstone late Sunday afternoon even though we could have spent many days there. We drove past a section of forest that was burned by a forest fire. It was an eerie sight. Millions of charred black sticks pointing to the sky.
We drove downhill for a long, long time on the way to Cody, Wyoming. Cody is named after Buffalo Bill Cody, a very famous person from the old frontier days. Cody is the rodeo capital of the world and they were having a rodeo as we drove through.
At that time, we should have stopped and got a motel room. It was such a nice day that we kept on driving. As we drove through northern Wyoming it began to get dark. The road signs are very small in that part of the country and we got lost after dark.
We were on a road headed east so I thought that we would eventually run into Interstate highway 90. We were planning to get a motel room on that highway. We were actually traveling south on a road labeled east.
We kept driving and driving through small towns in the darkness. There was very little cell phone service and we were just about the only car on the road. Everything was closed and we were all alone somewhere in the middle of Wyoming.
We finally ended up in a town called Thermopolis. It was named that because of the thermal springs or hot springs. Nothing was open shortly before midnight except a McDonalds.
I saw a little old lady sitting out front enjoying her meal. I parked the car and approached her. She was very nice so I asked her for directions to the Interstate highway.
She said that I missed the turn in the last town. She told me to go back and make a right turn on Route 16. She also mentioned that there were lots of animals on that road. I thought that was strange since it was the middle of the night.
It was getting late but I was determined to make it to Buffalo which is on Interstate 90. Little did we know that we were headed over the Rocky Mountains! It was dark. We were tired and didn’t bother to look at our road atlas.
We drove back to Worland, Wyoming and made the right turn on to route 16. We began our journey up the mountain sometime around midnight. At this time, I had been driving for about twelve hours.
We were the only car on the road. There were very few road signs and no kind of street lights. We drove up and up the mountain not knowing that we were in Bighorn National Forrest.
I was driving very slow because I was afraid to go off the road. There were dangerous switchbacks and no places to pull over. I was extra careful and alert.
On the way up the mountain Becky was spotting all kinds of wildlife like deer and elk. I did not see them because I was cautiously paying attention to the road. I mentioned to Becky that if we go over one of these cliffs, they will never find us. We had no cell phone service.
All of a sudden the paved road turned to dirt and gravel. I didn’t know what was going on. There were no signs, no lights and no parking areas.It was getting scary and I was driving slowly.
It was really dark and the sky was filled with stars. We saw huge shooting stars and snow covered mountain peaks. What an awesome sight it was, almost breathtaking.
We were on top of the world on a dirt road. We were the only people there. It was beautiful, awesome and scary all at the same time.
A hairy creature appeared in front of my right headlight. I tapped on my brakes and was probably traveling at about five miles per hour. The creature was under five feet tall and stood upright. It had very long, dirty white hair and what appeared to be a black raccoon mask around its eyes.
The Yeti did a wild flip over the hood of the car. Dirty white hair was flying everywhere! It landed on its feet on the driver side of the car. It was looking directly at me through the driver side window about twelve inches away.
I was totally mystified like a wide-eyed child! I was not afraid because it seemed to be playing with us. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I kept driving slowly and it was lost in the darkness in my mirror. I looked over at Becky and said: “OK, miss animal spotter, what in the world was that!” Becky appeared to be in shock and muttered: “Uh… Uh… how about a porcupine?”
I said: “A five foot porcupine with a raccoon mask? I don’t think so! It was a yeti! We just saw a Yeti!!!” We drove in silence for a few minutes, trying to understand what we just saw. I was amazed, awe struck and delighted that I would have such an opportunity.
We drove slowly down the mountain and got a motel room in Buffalo, Wyoming. We did not say a word to anyone. I guess we could hardly believe what we just encountered.
So let me explain exactly what we saw. We saw a creature that stood on two legs like a man. It was five feet tall or less and had massive arms and legs. The Yeti was very strong and nimble.
It had very long white hair all over except for around the lips and the palms of the hands. The hair was six to eight inches long, very wild looking and filthy dirty. It had dark eyes, lips, nose and hands. The face was almost human looking. It did not have a snout like a bear. It did not have the face of a monkey or gorilla.
I did not see any teeth at all. There were no fangs or anything like that. The eyes had dark hair around them kind of like a raccoon. It had a silly look on its face, not mean or scary.
I was blown away by its athletic ability. It did a wild flip over the hood and landed on its feet. I thought to myself: ” This creature is not afraid of bears or wolves, it is smarter, stronger, and faster.”
It did not pose any kind of threat to us. It seemed to be fooling around or playing with us. I was almost tempted to stop the car and say hello.
These events took place on August 20 at one AM in the morning. We were on Powder River Pass between Bighorn peak and Hazelton peak. We were on route 16 headed east in Bighorn National Forrest.
Driving through the pass the sky was so clear you could see forever. The universe is so vast and we live on this teeny, tiny planet called Earth. There are so many stars in the sky it is mind blowing. Shooting stars are an amazing sight. What a wonderful and incredible world we live in.
We go about our business each day, sometimes missing the sights and experiences that could enhance our lives. What is your life about? My life is about the experiences and memories that I have had. If you want to have memories then you have to get out and do something.
That’s my story… and I’m stickin’ to it… because it’s true.
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