November 18, 2013

The Horror On Highway 180

Written By: Ken Hulsey
From details compiled from the testimony of the eyewitnesses

Way back in July of 1990 an ex-girlfriend and I were returning from a trip out to California (I lived in New Mexico at the time) when we decided to stop by the Grand Canyon. My ex had never seen the canyon so we decided to take the detour off I-40 and give it a look.

We spent a couple of hours along the rim of the canyon admiring the scenery. It was starting to get towards evening and the sun was beginning to set so we decided to pack it in and start back on our long journey home. Being the typical male that I am, I pulled out my trusty road map to see if there was a shortcut back to the highway. I quickly discovered that Highway 180 cut through the mountains and led straight back to I-40 in Flagstaff. This route would save us a ton of time, so we headed out from the Grand Canyon towards our destination.

The trip started out normal enough. Just a typical drive through the mountains. There were few cars on the highway that evening, as I remember it and the road was kinda curvy….winding through the mountains. By this time the sun had set and it was getting dark.

This is when it happened.

I remember coming around a curve in the highway and there was a long straight-away in front of us before the road turned again.

As we began to proceed down the straight section we both noticed a very large animal walking down the right side of the road. Since I had just came out of a curve the car wasn’t moving very fast and when I saw the animal I slowed the car even further.

I remember my ex exclaiming, “Is that a bear?”

As we came closer to the animal it became apparent quickly that what we were looking at was not a bear. There was a very large, hairy, mass walking away from us on two legs. I can still remember the arms swaying as it strolled naturally down the side of the road away from us.

As we got closer, about 50 yards or more as I remember it, the cars headlights shown past the creature. I was at that time that our companion on the highway became aware of our presence. It stopped, and I stopped.

I remember this vividly, the animal went to turn around to get a look at us. Now this was odd because the animal had no neck, or not much of one, so it couldn’t turn it’s head to look at us it had to turn its whole upper body.

That apparently wasn’t good enough for the creature so it turned around completely to face us.

I remember my ex saying nervously, “What the hell is that?” I don’t think that I answered her. I just sat there in amazement at what I was looking at, somehow trying to wrap my mind around it.

What was there before us was this giant…..well ape. It was about seven to eight feet tall (about the same height as a road sign to my estimation), covered in brown fur, large….with very little definition. That is to say that it didn’t have a typical human build. Kinda built like a ‘brick-wall’, like football lineman, large from head to toe.

Facially the animal looked a lot like a character from “Planet of the Apes.” There were areas on the face that looked ‘hairless’, mostly around the eyes, nose and mouth. The eyes were like a cats they reflected green in the light from the cars headlights. Overall looking very much like a ‘great ape’.

The animal was covered in very ‘shaggy’ fur, possibly an inch or more in length. On the arms the hair was twice as long or so than it was on the head and body. The color was mostly a chocolate brown color but I remember there being lighter spots in some areas.

I had heard enough stories from my father, who was an avid hunter and owned a gun shop that catered to hunters, and seen enough TV to know exactly what we were confronted with, a Bigfoot.

The Bigfoot was very curious about us and our car. I could read it’s facial expressions. I remember that I wasn’t scared, the animal never acted in an aggressive manor. It just seemed to be as perplexed about my ex and I, as we were about it.

I remember the Bigfoot paused and rubbed its tong across its front teeth, again in curiosity, like it was calculating it’s next move.

It took one or two steps towards us and my ex went ballistic. Apparently she took the moves as a sign that it was going to attack us. I thought that it was just coming over to get a better look at us, anyway she pushed back into her seat and began screaming. The Bigfoot stopped its forward approach when she went off. Puzzled by the commotion, it stopped, then took two long strides into the timber, disappearing from site.

My girlfriend stopped her panic attack and we sat there silently looking at the spot where the creature once stood. I think we sat there for some time before I snapped out of my trance and decided to get out of there in case the Bigfoot came back.

I remember driving over onto the left hand side of the road, just in case the creature can charging out of the woods at us or something.

We looked into the woods as we drove past the spot where it had been and saw nothing.

Amazingly after we had gotten back on I-40 in Flagstaff, we both acted as if nothing had happened.

In the days, and months, after our encounter, my girlfriend refused to talk about the incident. We, of course, broke up months later and I haven’t seen her since.

For years I kept the story about my run-in with Bigfoot to myself. I didn’t want to be ridiculed or called a liar so I kept quite
about it.

Wanting to help serious efforts to study the animal, I submitted my story to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization in 2005 (You can read the report – HERE). I was interviewed not too long after that by Cliff Barackman about the encounter. Barackman, who has done extensive research in both Arizona and California, told me that my sighting was just one of several that had been reported in that same area, that same year.

Now I know some of you out there are not going to believe me, that’s okay, I don’t care if you do or don’t. I know what I saw.

You never ever believe in these sort of things, until they are right in front of you. Seeing is definitely believing!

Further Evidence At: Monster Island News

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Monster Island News, Sasquatch