BFRO #24218: Campers report harassment on the Mogollon Rim near Knoll Lake

📍 Location

📝 Description

These events took place over two consecutive weekends. My husband and I like to escape the summer heat of the valley (Phoenix) as much as possible, and our usual means of escape is up to the Mogollon Rim in Coconino County. We have been going there for years, and we know most of it like the backs of our hands, including all the sounds and wildlife in the area. We generally stay away from the populated lake areas and travel further into the deep woods where there are fewer people. In fact, some weekends we may not see anyone at all, but most of the time maybe at most a couple of other campers riding ATVs or something.Two weekends ago we were at a fairly remote campsite. We were pretty closed in by the trees. It wasn't a large open space like many campsites there. It had been raining on and off most of the day, and we spent the day reading and napping. I was sitting in the front seat of our conversion van reading while hubby was back on the bed napping. I started hearing what sounded like an animal ripping bark from a tree and moving around in the dense growth. This went on for about 15 to 20 minutes. I was so sure there was an elk or other large animal nearby that I sat my book aside, grabbed my camera and waited. It was absolutely silent (besides a few snores from the back of the van) that I was hoping whatever it was out there would break the clearing and I'd get a great photo. After about ten minutes of silence and no other movement I went back to my book, figuring whatever it was had smelled us and moved on.Not five minutes after I had put my camera down and resumed reading a branch about 4 feet long and 3 to 4 inches round came shooting out of the trees directly at the van like a javelin. It hit the side mirror dead on center, pushing it in towards the van. (It is hard to even move this mirror by hand. The force it took to force it in towards the van had to be tremendous). The force was such that it shattered the side mirror into many pieces. There's still a dent on the back metal portion of the mirror from the impact.I had glanced up just a second or two before impact, whether it was from noticing movement in front of me or just glancing up by chance, I don't know. I saw the trajectory, and it was NOT a limb FALLING from a tree. It came straight at us, like I said before like a javelin being hurled at us.I jumped over the front seat into the back and [my husband] woke up immediately. He saw what happened while I was babbling away like an idiot. His first words were, "Somebody threw that at us? Who was it?" We listened and watched for a while but didn't hear anything else. A while later I did think I heard movement in the forest, but by that time my senses were so alert I wasn't sure of what I was hearing. This happened in the mid-afternoon on Saturday, July 12, 2008.The incident rattled me and that night I had a restless night sleeping. We usually sleep in the back of the conversion van with all the slider windows open and other windows popped out but the front two windows rolled up. I have no idea what time it was, but I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of something sniffing at the small slider window by my feet. Whatever it was, it was very LARGE. It was taking deep, deep breaths like it was smelling inside of the van and then -- for lack of a better description -- sort of huffing/grunting out the breath. Each breath in sounded was deep and long. . .much longer than a human can do it. The only way I can think of to describe the breath out is like when a horse sometimes exhales and blows its lips together to make that sound. It wasn't exactly that, but similar enough to use it as a vague description. I laid there frozen, barely breathing, my heart absolutely pounding out of my chest. I kept poking at my husband trying to get him to wake up, but he didn't. I didn't want to say anything, I don't know why, I guess because I didn't want whatever it was to know I was awake. It was pitch black but I could sense it was large and aware of what it was doing. This smelling went on for a few minutes, of course it seemed like forever but was probably less than five. I was laying on back back and vaguely glanced a moving shape in the driver's side mirror but that's it. Weird thing is, I never heard it move away at all and it seemed like I laid there for a long time after the smelling stopped. Maybe I'm attributing things to something that I shouldn't, but I sensed a bit of curiosity in the creature by the way it was smelling at the window. Although I didn't feel entirely safe, I didn't feel extremely threatened either, or not enough to force my husband awake.When we woke up in the morning the first thing we noticed is that the kitchen had been raided ... but very politely, neatly raided. It wasn't destroyed at all like it would be if it was a bear or a coyote or an elk or even a bird. We had a packet of biscuits in aluminum foil that had been what seemed like very carefully opened and all the biscui

🔍 Circumstances

Two witnesses.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Mid afternoon and middle of the night on the 12th/13th. Late afternoon on the 19th.

ℹ️ Additional Details

Mid afternoon and middle of the night on the 12th/13th. Late afternoon on the 19th.

🔗 Sources (1)

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