A few weeks ago my wife and I visited Western USA, and in our road trip (by chance thanks to a fortuitous encounter with a couple who had just visited the place), ended up visiting Pikes Peak, Colorado. The mountain of 14,100 feet (4,300 m) is right next to Colorado Springs, in the Pike National Forest. A densely forested area in the Rockies. The road takes you all the way up to the summit. The view is amazing (there is also a cog railway that reaches the summit).
To our surprise there were road signs showing a "Bigfoot crossing", a wood carving (see below, with me next to it) of Bigfoot and an imprint of the creature's "big" foot in concrete (next to me on the ground in the photo). A sign informed tourists about a sighting here in 1989.
An amusing place indeed. However I must admit that the thousands of square miles of pine and aspen forests that we saw on our journey across Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming as well as the thick woods of Western Oregon and California (especially the Redwood and Sequoia forests, so similar to the Patagonian alerce Fitzroya cupressoides to which they are related)impressed me deeply. It could be the home to this "bigfoot" creature. There is plenty of space for it as well as other forms of wildlife.
Patagonian forests on the other hand, with their "Southern Beech" forests (Nothofagus), are quite different, more somber perhaps, more ominous, with plenty of underbrush, which lacked among the pines in North America. But also quite different: no squirrels, deer, elk or bears. More birds perhaps (no crows of course, they are not found in Patagonia) but less mammals.
Enjoy the photos:
Click to see the full photo. Copyright © 2013 by Austin Whittall
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2013 by Austin Whittall ©
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