Park Ranger Can't EXPLAIN SIGHTING at Yellowstone

[Riverbum]

I worked/lived in Yellowstone NP for five years Only saw the usual suspects Bear, Elk, Moose, Bison. Nothing out of the ordinary. I read where strange sounds near the Lake area have been reported by Guest/Workers, usually in the mornings but no explanation as to what it could be, been happening since Native Americans first reported it. I've never heard it.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Have you been to Custer state park in South Dakota?
Best state park I’ve been to
Love the bison

Yes, sure have. I use to live in North Dakota and went to Custer SP twice.

 

[traveller777]

Similar but different...

Large expanse of woods adjacent to the house here. Several hundred acres , plus connecting properties.

Still had two legs. And put them to use late fall deer season in those woods one afternoon.
Out a ways to watch a terrain feature till light faded and seeing branches through the riflescope was no longer a sure thing. Some shooting legal time left but I'd been out long enough and the woods were not feeling occupied at all.

Previously my daughter had been out there with me on a ridge overlooking a "kettlehole" with another beyond it. Maybe within a hundred yards of where i'd posted watch that solo evening after.
Squirrels frogged around till near dark , and thier noise in the leaves must be studied ; just to be sure they're not deer.
So , we had tabs on what was going on.
Till the squirrels ceased early. And something ran through the kettlehole bottom we were watching.
We both strained to spot it as we followed it's sound thirty-forty yards away expecting a squirrel or running deer but could not spot anything.
No unsettling as much as confusing...

Back to my solo hunt the eventful night after a totally uneventful watch.

I didn't need a light yet. (I tend to use one in low light during hunting season just in case an unscrupulous or nearsighted hunter arrived without my sensing them.) but it was getting dark enough to slow down for sure.
A running sound came from behind and left of me.
I turned to watch what appeared to be a dark pony on a route alongside to my left. Then as it passed it looked like someone with a round "outhouse" style hunting blind on thier back. Odd. And I thought it could be the neighbor kid and he shouldn't be running that late in the woods.

Then , "it" swung onto the trail in front of me ;turned toward me and advanced to within about fifteen yards and stood erect.
I could see a light colored upside down teardrop shaped area on it's chest about a foot tall and near as wide at the top.
Bear for sure I thought then. (We only have black bear here).
No problem as I'm holding a high powered rifle. Not that I expected any trouble , but I wasn't looking to pet it or anything if it rushed me.

It studied me briefly. Seemed longer of course as it was starting to be a strain trying to see detail in the now lower light.
When it dropped back on all fours it was already turning , and I watched it for a few yards till it became listening to it's progress. I had a good idea where it was heading. Another trail that skirted homes ect. that other bear had used before.
No where I was headed so , fine!

I left the trail we had shared briefly after another fifty yards or so onto the faint "spur" of my own trail headed to my house and shortly after (without exaggerated steps to get there or heightened pulse or panic like the ranger in the video ) I could see my porch light on the left , and across the road the neighbors porch lite on the right.

When I was nearer and could see the edge of the treeline a figure was running from my house/yard towards the neighbors.
Upright and when it went through /past a gap in the treeline I could see a silhouette. I was moving and didn't stop but sped up and that allowed me to get a couple more peeks of it.
Werewolf from old scary movies is plenty accurate!
And my thoughts that evening are still clear. Which now was that that bear must have did a button hook of sorts for some reason and crossed my yard. But a bear trotting that far /that distance I watched it before losing sight of it?
Then thinking who would be running towards the neighbors other than the neighbors boy? (Who was not welcomed in my yard if I wasn't home).

I'll blame imagination on the last sitings appearance.
But know I was under the impression I was calm enough to try to find logic in what I had watched.
A check the next day for any sign of ground disturbance (and I'm no slouch , more so on my sandy ground) showed nothing. No flipped leaves crushed grass . Prints of any kind. And I've located a couple two three claw marks out on the trail I'd been on before from 12ish pound dogs hundreds of yards out when we've had escapees.
So , I asked the neighbor if his boy was out that evening. No he wasn't was the answer. And he and I were on good terms so I believed him.

Had it not seemed to change shape within decent sight range repeatedly It would have been forgotten as just a bear by now.
Not the only odd sighting , though a different creature.
I held a tape measure to the dusty tracks of one while the person (my ladyfriend) who reported a road being crossed by something that was not supposed to exist here.

I try not to quiet the dogs when they sound off at night when I let them out into the fenced area till I know why they are hollering.
Sometimes in the day they burst out fired up and I study the woods to find out why.
When coyotes are around (they sound off at night) I note the distance and if close put the "coyote watch" note on the door I let them in and out.
With a spotlight and gun .

But when a dog skulks , especially certain ones that would at times take on the devil with a squirt gun , I consider a threat to them (or us) to be close.
Just in case something not understood could be real.

Strange experience, relevent. Eerie. By chance do you live around East Tennessee? Sometimes my cousin Zeb gets away from uncle Bobby Ray in the evening and raids people's garbage cans.

 

[Peyton Manning]

Yes, sure have. I use to live in North Dakota and went to Custer SP twice.

I love that part of the country. Driving to glacier once we just drove up on the Custer battlefield, just cool to stand out there and imagine…
Also discovered the little known teddy roosevelt np.
Loved it as well

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I love that part of the country. Driving to glacier once we just drove up on the Custer battlefield, just cool to stand out there and imagine…
Also discovered the little known teddy roosevelt np.
Loved it as well

Yes, i have been to Custer battlefields 3 times, I sat on last stand hill once at dusk, just before the park closed, and imagined what it must have been like that day, the wind plays tricks on your hearing, you could almost hear screams.

 

[CreakyDigger]

I love Yellowstone, we would go this summer if it wasn't for the damn high price of gas. I have camped there in June, July, August, and September. September was the best as there were no crowds. We went once the last week of May, first week of June, and the animals were still down in the valley, there is usually still snow on the ground and on the mountains and it is still cold at night, with lows in the high 20s to low 30s at night, highs in high 50s to low 60s.

I have had it snow on us in June and in September while camping in YS. The nighttime fires sure feel good as do the heaters in the tent and campers. Love cooking breakfast over the fire in the mornings, bacon and eggs just seemed to taste so much better.

We drove into the park one year on Labor Day, it was wall-to-wall vehicles leaving and we were the only car entering campsites everywhere, with no crowds anywhere.

I was there once, about 20 years ago. I used to have each of my children choose a trip when they graduated high school, and my oldest boy picked Yellowstone. We also drove out to Little Bighorn to see the battle site, back through lower Montana and down to Cody, where we stayed that week.

The Wife and I are planning to go in late August of 2024. We've started saving for it now. Hoping to stay a night or two at the enormous log hotel at Old Faithful while we're in the park.

 

[Riverbum]

I was there once, about 20 years ago. I used to have each of my children choose a trip when they graduated high school, and my oldest boy picked Yellowstone. We also drove out to Little Bighorn to see the battle site, back through lower Montana and down to Cody, where we stayed that week.

The Wife and I are planning to go in late August of 2024. We've started saving for it now. Hoping to stay a night or two at the enormous log hotel at Old Faithful while we're in the park.

If you can afford it,.... BOOK EARLY