Since 2013 I have taken elementary-aged children in October to go look for Bigfoot. It took me 6 months of searching to find the ideal location for the first field trip. Here in the Denver area we are very lucky to have several national forests, parks and open spaces within an hour but I had to find one such location that shows signs of Bigfoot and also fits the needs of the children. Like bathrooms, covered eating area, terrain not too steep to navigate, bus parking and only about an hour from the school. That was a tall order but I was able to locate a wonderful park in Jefferson County. Let me tell you of our adventure. I could not have asked for a better experience for the children and staff.
We arrive at the Jefferson County Open Space around 10:00 am. There were only a couple of cars in the parking lot. All were fishing at the pond. Which we walked by but wasn't where we were going to look and focus our attention on. I had the bus driver park to the side so the bus was facing the river. I told the driver, staff and children to open the windows and listen to me whoop and knock down by the river. Which was in a secluded spot that I had found the month before when I had explored the park. So I walked down to the river and faced the ravine and heavily forested area. I did two very loud whoops and knocks. Then I walked back up to the bus. I was hoping I was loud enough for them to hear. When I got to the bus, the staff, children and bus driver were all big eyed and watching me. As I jumped into the bus I asked them if they heard my whoops. They all nodded and said yes. The bus driver said they heard THREE WHOOPS. I said that I did two. Then the bus driver asked if she could come with us. LOL I told her yes. It was a good beginning.
We divided the children into 2 groups when we got off the bus. One group was going with me and the other to do a scavenger hunt because they were not wanting to go looking. Which was fine with me because I want all the children to enjoy the clean air and the outdoors without being scared or worried about Bigfoot. We had a few who were uneasy about it so we let them decide which group. So 9 did the scavenger hunt. Most came with me. I then talked about what to look for and that everything they see and hear is not Bigfoot unless you can rule out everything else. I then taught them how to whoop. I also told them that they are allowed to talk, whooped, laugh and have fun while out hiking and looking for Bigfoot. I wanted as much loud happy children sounds all around hoping that the Bigfoot group there would come close enough to watch the children. We were a loud, noisy group of 19 children, 2 staff, bus driver and myself. All I could hear was laughter and whoops as we hiked around. My heart was filled with joy.
I took them up a ravine with a year round stream. It had a good trail that takes you up to Pike National Forest. I wanted to show them a tree break and arch that I had found the month before. As we were walking I spotted a teepee structure that was not there the month before. It was by another ravine that came down to the one we were in. I went up and looked at it and took some pictures. There were 2 tree breaks ringing the teepee structure. I wouldn't allow the children to climb up to it because it was very steep and had poison ivy all around it. So they took pictures of it and then we went and looked at the tree break and arch. We then started walking back down the ravine to go to another section of the park that I wanted to explore with the children. I stopped at the other ravine by the teepee structures and noticed that there was a very nice pine tree. So I asked the children if they wanted to do a wood knock with my wood knocker and they said yes. So I had all 19 do a wood knock. Then we all faced the ravine and did one whoop together. We waited exactly one minute...
AND WE GOT A CALL BACK FROM ABOVE US!!! Then one nine year old girl started to cry and hugged me. She then said, "I knew they were real but not that real!" All of us had heard the call. You should have seen everyone. All big eyed and excited. Then we started back down so we can go to the other spot I wanted to see. When we almost got to the bottom one of the older boys came up to me and asked if Bigfoot whistle. I looked at him and said yes they do. This young man has never shown any real interest or knowledge of Bigfoot before. I asked him where he heard it and he pointed to the left and above us where there was some trees and brush. So I told him to whistle back and then I did my special whistle I do when out in the field. He said he did not hear it again when we left the ravine area. Very interesting. I have never talked about Bigfoot whistling.
I reminded the children that we are in a park and that other people use it too so any prints they find will most likely be human. We get about halfway to the spot when one of the older boys raced up to me and said he found a print. I again reminded him that it probably would be human but I will go look. He said it was big and in a clothesline pattern. That caught my attention. He then pointed out the prints. Yes, they were bigger than I expected and in a clothesline pattern! We found about 5 prints. I showed them how to measure and what a clothesline pattern looked like. I then pointed out the differences in human versus Bigfoot. The 2 main differences was how the toes are more straight across and a wide heel.
The prints were older but about 15 inches. One had clear impression of toes. We were so excited. I had walked right by them without seeing them! But one of my eagle-eyed boys spotted them. They were to the right of the main trail. Then I noticed the time and we had to go! We ran out of time. So we quickly hiked back to the bus. The children excitedly told the others about our hike. The next year we had 42 come and all went with me. LOL
Another reason I had chosen this location was the knowledge of two sightings within 5-7 miles of this park. 2015 was our last year to go to this location. We had a lot of fun there but I needed to find another location that was closer and maybe not as many people. Since 2013 this park has been discovered by other people so it wasn't as secluded as I want for us to go exploring. So I found another location in my county and much closer to the school. It has several sightings within 7 miles and a news report about the 1954 Plum Creek Monster. So cross your fingers and wish us luck that we find some prints next week. If not that's OK. It gets us out in mother nature and do some exploring. So its still a win-win for us.
A secret weapon is having happy noisy children with you while exploring for Bigfoot. For me that is priceless and heaven on earth.
SO MY FRIENDS SQUATCH ON!
