The documented Bigfoot history of Estes Park, Bigfoot Days 2026, and this week in the park

BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD

Moe Pass came by Wednesday evening and asked what I was writing this week. I told him I was writing about the thing nobody around here talks about out loud but everybody has a story about.

He sat down without being asked.

There are places up on these trails where the light goes wrong in the late afternoon. Where something moves at the edge of what you can see and by the time you turn your head it is already gone. Most people who have spent real time in these mountains have had a moment like that. Most of them do not file a report. Most of them do not tell anyone.

Some of them do.

Larimer County has eight filed reports with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. That is eight people who saw something, or found something, or heard something, and decided it was worth putting their name on a document. A doctor. A local property owner. A family hiking with binoculars. A camp guest at the YMCA. A woman alone on Storm Mountain who followed a sound she could not explain.

None of them were looking for this.

Bigfoot Days is coming to Estes Park on April 24-25. Before it gets here, it seemed like a reasonable time to go back through the record and see what this valley and its surrounding country actually has on file.

Moe put down his coffee and said he was going to need a refill for this one.

SIT DOWN. THIS ONE'S GOOD.

Eight Reports

What Larimer County's documented Bigfoot record actually says, and why it is more interesting than you might expect

What Is the BFRO and Why Does It Matter?

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization was founded in 1995 and maintains the largest database of reported Bigfoot sightings in North America. Every report is investigated, verified for credibility, and classified. A Class A report means a clear sighting under conditions that rule out misidentification. A Class B report means indirect evidence: sounds, prints, or something at the edge of visibility that could not be confirmed.

Larimer County, which includes Estes Park and the surrounding Roosevelt National Forest, has eight reports on file. What follows is what those reports actually say.

In 2013, a local Estes Park resident found unusual footprints in a snowbank above Elm Road and called in the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. What were the dimensions of the footprints, what was the stride length between them, and what was the name of the trained tracking dog brought in by the BFRO investigator?

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LOCAL HIGHLIGHT - BIGFOOT DAYS COMING SOON

Bigfoot Days is April 24-25 in Estes Park, and given everything you just read, the timing feels appropriate.

The free outdoor festival runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 25 in Bond Park, with appearances from Bigfoot TV celebrities, Colorado sighting stories, live music, axe throwing, a Bigfoot calling contest, and more than 50 vendors.

Friday, April 24 kicks off with the Bigfoot BBQ, a ticketed dinner limited to 150 people. Saturday evening closes with the 7 p.m. premiere of The Squatch at the Historic Park Theatre, complete with red carpet, cast Q&A, and free admission.

The Bigfoot Half Marathon and 5K runs Saturday morning and finishes right at the festival in Bond Park. Lumpy Ridge Brewing hands you a beer at the finish line.

More information at eventsinestes.com/bigfoot-days or 970-586-6104.

DID YOU KNOW? 

Larimer County has eight filed reports with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, spanning from 1971 to 2019. The BFRO was founded in 1995 and maintains the largest database of reported Bigfoot sightings in North America. Every report is investigated before publication.

The Jim Holder cell phone video filmed near Estes Park in 2007 was purchased by Bigfoot researcher Adrian Erickson for $20,000 before being pulled from public circulation. The footage shows what researchers describe as an auburn-colored figure taking twelve steps through the trees. It has never been definitively explained.

Rocky Mountain National Park itself has at least one documented report on file with the BFRO, from the Green Mountain Trail on the west side of the park in July 2015. The park covers over 415 square miles, most of it backcountry. The Green Mountain Trail corridor in the Kawuneeche Valley is among the least traveled sections of the park.

Buck's Joke Of The Day

A doctor, a property owner, a father and his son, a local looking for firewood, a camp guest, a hiker, and a woman following a strange sound all filed reports about the same thing in Larimer County over 54 years.

The county has not issued a statement.

The park service has not issued a statement.

Bigfoot Days is April 25th.

(Eight reports. Zero official responses. The festival has better attendance every year.)

The footprints found by Ken Collins above Elm Road in early 2013 measured 14 inches long and 10 inches wide, with a five-foot stride between them. BFRO investigator Dennis Pfohl conducted a three-hour investigation and brought a trained search and rescue tracking dog named Lakota. Pfohl called the findings credible. Hair samples were also collected during the investigation.

UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Moe stood at the door with his jacket half on and said he was going to take a different trail home tonight.

I asked him which one.

He said he had not decided yet. He just wanted to pay attention to what was around him for a change.

That is probably the right response to all of this. Eight reports over fifty-four years from people who were not looking for anything. A 14-inch print in the snow. A woman who followed a sound into the trees and came out with a photograph she could not explain.

Maybe start paying attention on the way home.

Stay smart, stay safe, and leave the mountains with more questions than you brought in.

- Buck Timber The Mountain Thread themountainthread.com/signup

This account draws from verified reports filed with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, the Estes Park News, and documented accounts from Larimer County witnesses. The sightings are reported as filed. What you make of them is your own business. - Buck

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