Red River Gorge Encounter

Location: Red River Gorge

Witnesses: Ian, Paul and Brandon (last names on file)

Date: November 2015

This report comes as a referral from a fellow teacher. I called then later met Ian in person on 2-11-2017. His video testimony matched his earlier phone conversation identically. See video.

I spoke with Paul on 2-25-2017. Here is his testimony:

Paul is currently 24 years old and has been backcountry camping since the age of 8. He has hiked at night and has logged countless hours in the Kentucky wilderness, especially at Red River Gorge. Fear of the woods has never, ever been a factor in his life, until now. The men, along with three large dogs, hiked 8 miles deep into the Gorge into an area which had been previously been closed to the public for a significant period of time. They were the first humans in this particular area in some time. Paul recalls not seeing a human the entire weekend. The first night, Friday, was uneventful. The men decided to take a day hike on Saturday. After their hike, the men along with their dogs, arrived back at camp around 4pm. After eating dinner, it was twilight. Ian left camp to use the restroom, when he returned it was now pitch black outside.


Ian's Testimony

A very loud “scream-howl” which lasted about 45 seconds got everyone’s attention! Paul said, “It sounded like a large man being slaughtered combined with a wolf. It was the most unnatural vocalization I’ve ever heard!” Immediately afterwards, the entire woods became eerily quiet. Ian and Brandon looked to Paul for answers, as Paul was the experienced outdoorsman, “What the hell was that???” Paul said that he has never ever heard anything like that in his life. Paul explained, fight or flight immediately kicked in and the men became very anxious. The men did not have guns. Brandon turned every light on in the camp and grabbed the machete. Paul begged him to turn the lights off, for fear whatever “it was,” would see the lights and come towards them. The men bickered. A few minutes went by, then a series of five crashes came from the ridge behind the men. Paul and Ian both recalled, “It sounded like something running on two legs, breaking large branches!” Then there was a laughter, “a disembodied witch’s cackle!” At this time Naku, Paul's fearless 120 lb Great Pyrenees, was missing from camp. Paul leaves camp and heads towards his dog growling. Paul finds him in the middle of the creek growling aggressively in the direction of the noise. Naku's hair was standing straight up on his back, wide stance, with his rear legs quivering. As Paul’s headlamp shined in the same direction as Naku, Paul saw two blood-red eyes in the rhododendron at the base of the hill. The eyes were about eye-level with Paul, the size of silver dollars and about 9 inches apart. As soon as Paul’s white light hit the eyes, the creature appeared to turn away. When asked if he saw the creature, Paul said no, just a dark, upright shadow was behind the vegetation. In seconds, Naku does a 180 and begins growling at the ridge behind them. Paul immediately turned and caught another set of red eyes about 100 yards up the ridge. At this point he explained, “Whatever this was, it was not playing by our rules!” Unless there were two of them, he never heard it change position. Overcome with total fear, Paul grabbed Naku and headed back to camp. The men never slept and left immediately at first light. Paul added, “He felt violated, that it was purposely messing with them, that it was toying with them. I could not have possibly experienced more fear in my life than that night.”

- Charlie Raymond, Lead Investigator




Website submission on 12-9-12


Your first name: Anonymous (full name on file)

Estimated date? October 2005

Estimated time?
4 PM

Nearest city? Slade

Nearest Road(s): 715

Length of time the encounter lasted:
2 minutes

How many witnesses? 1

Please describe your encounter:


My wife, two young children and I decided to go hiking one fall morning, so we made the trip to Red River Gorge, in hope of taking in some of the beautiful fall foliage. After a day of hiking the easier trails we decided to take one final drive along 715.  We stopped at a rock that many of the tourist jump off of into the Red River. Since the kids were asleep, I decided to be adventurous and climb the rock to jump into the chilly water.  Being that it was right before sunset, we seemed to have the entire park to ourselves.  Once I made it to the top, I looked back at my wife for a little motivational push.  She yelled up to me," Go ahead and do it already, so we can head home." It was then that I heard a sound that will stick with me forever. From across the river I heard the loudest, deepest bark I hever heard. A short and gutteral Errah!  Much like a Gorilla on NatGeo before it charges.  I quickly turned to look across the river.  My wife and I frozen, until something slapped a tree.  It sounded like a grown man had hit a telphone pole with a baseball bat.  A tree at least 20' tall, with the girth of a 2 liter bottle shook violently.  As I began to back up to climb down the rock, I knew that what ever it was could cross the river faster than I could get down, so I moved real slow.  After I took my second step a chill shook through my body as the creature made a break through the woods on the oppositte side of the river. Knowing that this was the opening I was waiting for, I slid down the rock and ran back up to my wife and car.  The kids slept through everything, but my wife was just as astounded. We still talk about it today.  Neither of us saw the creature, but in our minds there is only one thing it could be - bigfoot.

Any additional Info?

A loud tree knock less that 75 feet away from us as well as a deep, sharp warning bark (as if Barry White, screamed Errah! as loud as possible)

Follow-up: 12-19-12

I've contacted the witness via email a few times. He holds many prestigous titles in education and wishes to remain anonymous due to a possible promotion and fears some may judge him. I can see his point and respect his wishes.

- Charlie Raymond, Lead Investigator



Website submission on 11-6-06

Your first name: Mena (last name on file)

Estimated date? Sunday Nov 5th 06

Estimated time? 12-4am

What city, or nearest city? Red River Gorge

Length of time the encounter lasted:
Couple hours

How many witnesses? 2

Please describe your encounter: Me and my fiance believe we encounterd something like a big foot, it started with feeling like we were being watched and then that night when we went to sleep we thought we heard raccoons playing with the foil we left out, when we peaked our head out nothing was there and the foil was all intact, so we went back to sleep, I couldnt sleep so I stayed awake, a few minutes later I heard a mans foot steps or what I thought was a mans foot steps messinga round in the leaves at that time my fiance woke up cause he heard it to, he again peaked outside and nothing was there, so couple hours later we wake up and start cooking breakfast (still very dark like 3am) when my fiance was stirring up the fire he saw 2 eyes pear out of the brush, they were red when he went to look at it again they were gone he also smelled a rancid ferret like smell, we figured we had enouph moon light to start packing and we were both really freaked out so we packed up in the moonlight and started down the path and we both felt like we were being followed, we got half way to the parking area and we heard someone walking below us except it was a really good drop and no paths below and it was 4am and we were the only ones camping, so we figured (oh good people) we were relieved till we started getting to the parking area, and all of a sudden I heard something jump behind me and running I walked faster and then right next to me above the bushes something was charging or trying to scare us, so at that time we pretty much ran and it chased us the whole way, it seemed like it was trying to run up the hill to cut us off we got to the parking lot and it stopped, we never saw an animal or what the thing was.Describe the creature with detail: Smells like ferret/Red eyes/medium size/ heard it running on 2 feet and then 4Additional Info: Area, Sounds, Etc. : A strange growl sound, the area was on one of the main hiking paths, about a mile or so in..there was a rock and you climb up it and then you see a huge flat cliff rock and you walk back into it more and you'll see the camping spot.

Follow-Up Report (witness #1):

Can you approximate how high the red eyes were off the ground, so we can estimate its height?

"The eyes were chest lvl, but they were spaced far apart, it looked as if it was crouching down'"

Did you have a flashlight and did you shine it at the creature?

"Tryed to, but we couldnt see it"

Was there a full moon, or any moonlight?

'"Full"

Would you and your fiancé be willing to go back there to show one of our researchers the exact area, so we may look for evidence like tracks, hair samples, etc.?

"We were still pretty shaken up after we went through all of this, but if we can still help in
anyway we would be glad to, ty for responding."


Follow-Up Report (witness #2, the boyfriend):

Mena submitted a report on our website regarding your recent bigfoot encounter. I’d love to add any details you can submit also. Having 2 eye-witness reports really validates the credibility, reliability and accuracy of the report.

Please describe the encounter with as much detail as possible:


Mena said you saw red eyes. Can you approximate how high the red eyes were off the ground, so we can estimate its height?

"Yes, they seemed to be about 4 feet off the ground, which isnt that high for a bigfoot. However the spacing of the eyes between pupils was that of a humans or longer. I kinda got feeling that it was crouching because there was bushes there where I was them.I actually felt when I seen them that it was a werewolf, which is even more suspicious than a big foot. "

Did you have a flashlight and did you shine it at the creature?

"Yes we did, however other than seeing the eyes we actually did not get a glimpse of the animal. I think shining the lights around looking for whatever was stocking us kept it at bay. Alittle scary for a animal to have light fling around in the middle of the night. "

Did smell or hear and any sounds from the creature?

"Smell. At one point, mena went to sleep and I was rounding up for the evening when I smelt something very odd. I grew up around the woods, and I know what various animals and the woods is suppose to smell like. This was not one of them.It did smell similar to a ferat, but for me to be able to smell a ferat it would have to be really close to smell as strong as I did.I immediately jumped up as soon as I smelled it, and there was nothing there. If it was a another animal, the amount of smellsmell that I smelt, the animal would have to be very close, and I seen nothing. Making me feel like it was a large animal.Sounds. When we did go to bed we left our tin foil we had cooked in, in the fire pit. Once we had quieted down in bed we heardfoot steps leading up to the camp.and then messing around with the tin foil. Then the foot steps were walking around the tent and even heard something brush up against the tent. We were to terrified to look. After whatever it was had left, I looked out and of course nothing was there. We also footsteps on the way out out, but not voices. I thought to myself great, there are humans out here too. So I remember that making me feel better. The footsteps seen to be about 200 feet up the path from us. We could hear so well because it was absolutely silent, really weird for 5 oclock in the the morning. Usually birds are up at this time. We got to the place where we heard the steps from and something came up from the gorge running past mena, scaring the shit out of her.We both ran. When we got back to the car we realized that the footsteps we heard, we did not see anyone at all, and any campersthat would be out there would be in the sack, not out in the middle of the woods by themselves.

Would you be willing to return to the location to show me where this took place?

"I’d like to look for tracks, hair samples or other evidence. I did write most of the letter that you received from Mena, however we both experienced the same thing. Its probally too late to go out there, but I did write the location in which the situation happened. Thanks for your interest. "

- Charlie Raymond, Lead Investigator

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