A Cheyenne couple might be among those to finally answer the age-old question of whether Bigfoot exits.
Shannon Parker told Cowboy State Daily that she, her husband and another passenger aboard a train they were riding in Colorado on Sunday saw what very well could have been a specimen of the legendary creature.
“From our perspective, it seemed pretty legit,” she said of the apparently huge, bipedal creature walking upright and first spotted on a distant hillside by her husband, Stetson.
“It was hard to comprehend what I was seeing,” Stetson told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday. “I was hard to explain and tell my brain what it was, so in a moment of comic relief, I said, ‘It’s Bigfoot.’”
That prompted the other passenger, who the couple said is already leery of the attention the sighting is generating, to pull out his cellphone and shoot a short video that has since blown up online.
The video immediately blew up across social media, and comments sections were abuzz with people speculating over whether the Bigfoot mystery had finally been solved. Or, if it was just a prankster hiking about in a Sasquatch suit.
Major media outlets, such as TMZ, have also picked up the story.
“We’ve had so many people try to message us,” Shannon said. “I’m not sure what to say, we just got to have a really cool experience.”
Shannon managed to get a few photos of her own with her camera.
‘We Were Looking For Elk’
The Parkers were taking a train ride on the narrow-gauge railroad through the San Juan Mountains between Silverton and Durango, Colorado, when the sighting happened at about 3:30 p.m..
Shannon said they and the other passenger, who they identified as “Brandon,” were seated at the very back of the last car in the train. Brandon shared the video with OutThere Colorado, which posted it to its X.com account.
They were watching the steep slopes along the tracks closely for a well-documented species of wildlife.
“When I saw it, we were looking for elk. I was hoping to see some bulls in the rut,” said Stetson.
“My husband was like, ‘Something’s moving … it’s Bigfoot.’ And the guy next to him (Brandon) got out his cellphone and started filming,” Shannon said.
Stetson said it was hard to estimate exactly how far away the creature was, but guessed it had to be at least several hundred yards. Even so, he said it was clearly walking on two feet, before squatting down in an apparent attempt to hide.
“It wasn’t moving like a bear or anything else I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Shannon added it’s noteworthy that the color of the creature’s fur matched the surrounding vegetation.
“You can hardly see him (on the video) in the shrubbery. He really blends in,” she said.
Bigfoot is generally depicted as having black or dark brown fur. But whatever it is that appears in the video and Shannon’s photos has a lighter coat that appears to match the surrounding grasses.
‘What Was It?’
Since the video has been making the circuit on social media, some have speculated that it could have been an archery hunter in ghillie suit camouflage, or perhaps a staged publicity stunt by the railroad.
Stetson said he doubts the ghillie suit hypothesis.
“I’ve seen people in ghillie suits, I’ve worn a ghillie suit in the military,” said Stetson, who finished his service with the Air Force in 2021.
The Parkers moved to Cheyenne in 2017 when he was stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, but decided to stay after his service ended because they’d fallen in love with Wyoming.
Since then, Stetson said he’s done his share of elk hunting and doesn’t think that what he saw up on the distant slope was a hunter. It had no visible rifle or bow, he said.
Shannon said if the railroad had been trying to pull a publicity stunt, it probably would have stationed an actor in a costume much closer and far more visible to the entire train rather than just something to be glimpsed by one sharp-eyed person at the very back.
She said they also talked with the train crew and asked them if they had ever heard any other reports of passengers seeing Sasquatch through the windows.
“They said no, they hadn’t,” she said.
Left The Binoculars In The Truck
The Parkers said that prior to their sighting, they were highly skeptical about Bigfoot’s existence. They’d heard stories, of course, but took the position that seeing would be believing.
Now, they’re more convinced. They said that they’re eager to see if any experts’ analysis of the video provides a definitive answer as to whether it was just a hoax or the real deal.
Stetson said his one regret is that he left his binoculars behind in his pickup when they took their train ride.
“From now one my Vortex (binoculars) are going to be in our go-bag anytime we leave,” he said.
Even so, he thinks the odds are slim to none that – if what they saw really was a Sasquatch – they’ll ever get a second look.
“It’s a one-in-a-million, one-off thing to see something like that,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
