BFRO #64064: Camper hears Sierra-type whoops and knocking near Lost Creek Wilderness, 35mi SW of Denver

📍 Location

📝 Description

About five years ago, in late Spring, I took my kids camping in the Lost Creek Wilderness area. They were 8 and 10 years old at the time. We go there quite a bit because it's far enough away to avoid the Denver crowds that flood local trails and parks but close enough it's not a days drive to get there. I have a spot near Tarryall Reservoir I have camped at several times before. It's a few miles off the main dirt road up a jeep trail and during the week there are usually not many people there. I like it because it's on a ridgeline overlooking a small valley. It�s at the end of the Jeep trail, so on the way up and once I�m there I can easily tell if anyone is in the area or coming up on our camp.We got there on a Thursday morning and I didn�t see anyone on the way nor hear anyone down in the valley below us. I had heard bigfoot stories like everyone else but never thought about it or gave them much credit. I figured it was like alien abductions or something. Weird stories that happened in people's imaginations but not real. I do know it wasn�t on my mind when we arrived.We set up and hung out the entire day around camp. The plan was to stay 3-4 nights. We didn't have a fire because there was a fire ban at the time. That night the kids went to bed as soon as it got dark. I went to bed around 11:30 pm or so.I was lying in my sleeping bag for about 20 minutes messing with my phone to see if I could get coverage and play some games. I could hear coyotes start to howl and bark down in the valley below us, where I believe they had a few dens. In the middle of this coyote chatter and barking I hear, about half a quarter mile in the valley below, this startlingly sound I have never heard before. I have spent years in the mountains. I have heard just about every animal sound there is. With the exception of coyotes, an occasional owl, ranchers cattle, and very rarely a screaming mountain lion most animals stay quiet at night. I heard two deep �WHOOOOP� WHOOOP� sounds coming from about a quarter mile in the small Valley below. The howling from the coyotes instantly stopped and remained silent. At first I thought maybe it was some drunk campers messing around. I had driven through the valley the day before and had seen no one there. Again I hear another series of loud whooping calls. I am running through my head what animal it could be. A bear? A mountain lion? Some sort of crane or bird? I hear it again. Did some ape escape the zoo or and get loose in the mountains? I start hearing what sounds likes someone beating two large pieces of firewood together. These sounds go on for another good 10-15 minutes. After it was over I stayed awake for several hours waiting for the noises to return. At the time I am thinking some idiots came in late to camp and were screwing around in the woods. The next day I walk down to the area I heard the noises come from, to check to see if anyone was there. Not a soul. I thought maybe whoever was there had packed up early and left. We spent the rest of the day at camp and hiking around. Later that afternoon, before dinner I shot some of the rifles I had brought. Amazingly my kids had slept through the previous nights noises and I didn�t tell them about it. I didn�t want to scare them for no reason. The kids went to bed around 9:30 and I stayed up. I figured I would stay up a bit later to see if the sounds would return. About midnight I decided to turn in and get some sleep. I lay awake in my sleeping bag for quite awhile. I still couldn't sleep. Eventually I started to nod off thinking nothing was going to happen that night and whoever had been messing around the night before was gone. I am guessing it was maybe 30 minutes into a very light sleep later that I was startled awake to the sound of two very deep, and loud �WHOOOOP� �WHOOOOP� sounds. This time the sounds were much louder because the sounds were coming from about 70 yards from our camp near the jeep road below us. I am both half scared and half very pissed. I quickly jump out of the tent. I'm now thinking the jerks from the night before have decided to make this personal and have been stalking our camp and think its funny to wake us up in the middle of the night. I never go out in the woods without a rifle and a good light. (I have run into idiots out in the woods before). I heard the whooping noise a couple more times while I started to walk down the slope of the ridge about 25 yards. I was thinking if these people were armed I didn�t want to engage in gun fight in the middle of my camp. I scanned the tree line with my rifle mounted light looking for movement. Each time changing positions after each scan. As I moved a bit further something off to my right and about 30-40 yards away went crashing through the woods. I know what somebody running through the woods sounds like. Whatever this was, it was very big and very heavy. I am thinking �what the heck, is Shaquille O'neal with them? It was running very fast and covering more groun

🔍 Circumstances

My children but they were asleep

🌤️ Weather Conditions

Between 2330hrs and 0200 hrs

ℹ️ Additional Details

Between 2330hrs and 0200 hrs

🔗 Sources (1)

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