I once worked with “Marcos” (not his real name) who claimed he had an encounter with something from out of this world. He and his girlfriend had gone up to Jemez Springs in the forest to the west of Los Alamos. Marcos and his girl were planning to camp overnight and they noticed that a group of Hippies were partying pretty close to them. But everyone was cool and each set up their own separate campfires and began to settle in for the night. (This was around 1970 and Timothy Leary and several other colorful types were beginning to inhabit the Jemez wilderness.)

Marcos said the Hippy group suddenly got really loud. He looked over at their site and saw a huge man-looking beast standing between two trees with a huge boulder held high over his head. He said this thing stood at least ten feet tall. It was getting ready to throw the massive rock down at the group. Everyone screamed and spread away. The boulder came down but didn’t hit anyone. Then the beast ran away as quick as it had appeared.

A few minutes later, Marcos said he heard heavy raspy breathing coming from the rocks beside him. He said the breathing wasn’t human—it sounded stressed from running. The breathing came from something much larger and more powerful than a human. Marcos said he remained hidden and silent. Eventually the beast caught its breath and wandered off again. Marcos and his girl friend quickly joined the Hippies. They all built one huge fire and sat by it all night. All of them were afraid to sleep and they were afraid to go back up any of the trails until daylight came out in full force. All of them were terrified.

Being rather ignorant of Bigfoot, I asked Marcos if it could have been an over-sized bear. He looked at me with the serious face of someone who has hunted game, and said, “It was no bear. I know what a bear looks like and this thing had long arms and legs—not stubby ones like a bear. It was too big for a bear. Its shape was different and it had hands, not paws.” Marcos shivered a little bit as the memory came back to him. He shook it off and went back to work.

Bigfoot is now thought to have the ape-like habit of throwing rocks at unwanted intruders. I don’t think anyone else knew that—back then. In fact, I don’t think Marcos ever called it a Bigfoot—it just something frightening and unexplained that he had witnessed—and then related the story to me.

Just this last year I noticed that there have been more encounters in the Jemez Mountains, at least according to one episode on the Animal Planet series, Finding Bigfoot.

I have included an illustration from Wikipedia regarding the size of a Bigfoot to a human. It might give some perspective as to what people may be seeing and why they go into such a primal fear at the sight of the creature.

—Raven DeVille