Bigfoot in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Bigfoot in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Bigfoot
Compiled from various sources.
Aptos
Witness describes seeing a 7’ tall Bigfoot with “big black eyes” and “large flat nose” that was “dark skinned with blackish-grayish hair,” peeking at him from behind a tree just off the Loma Prieta Grade Trail in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. The creature peeked back and forth twice before ducking back behind the tree, “lowering itself, like it was going on all fours.” The encounter lasted roughly 20-30 seconds.
Source: Reddit.
Half Moon Bay
Reddit user describes boyfriend’s sighting of a “chimpanzee” with “dark black matted fur and long arms” carrying off a dead coyote on the passenger side of the vehicle. Sighting happened in the same general area as the 1976 Half Moon Bay Airport sighting.
Source: Reddit.
Aptos
Witness was hiking off trail in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park searching for evidence of ghost towns and old rail lines when he discovered rock piles resembling a burial site. Upon observation of the piles, he began to feel that he was being watched when a rock flew through the air hitting a nearby tree. Deciding to exit the area, he turned to leave and another rock landed nearby. Hiking back to the trail, he continued to feel as though something was watching him, and he called out a Hopi greeting. As he reached the trail that led back to his vehicle, he turned and saw the upper torsos of two Bigfoot sticking out of a dense thicket of brush. They were both about 7’ tall with dark eyes and dark skin; one was black and the other was brown.
Ben Lomond
Witness, who recently had eight chickens stolen from a pen enclosed by a 7’ tall mesh wire fence, was outside his home with a neighbor around 5:00pm when they heard an “extremely loud scream followed by a series of gunshots.” About 2 ½ hours later, the witness heard rustling in the brush behind his neighbor’s house and saw a well built, 7 ½’ tall Bigfoot with brown hair covering its body pass an open area near the chicken pen. The creature had long arms and passed by on two legs with a slightly stooped gait before disappearing down an embankment behind his neighbor’s property.
Source: David Paulides, Tribal Bigfoot, 113-116.
Felton
Nighttime witness sees several glowing red eyes in the trees at a height of about eight feet at the top of San Lorenzo Avenue as she turned around at the dead end in front of the quarry.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, July 16, 2006 Volume 2 Number 3.
Aptos
Three young witnesses see a jet-black Bigfoot with short hair, bent forward and dragging its arms as it ran alongside Valencia Creek before disappearing behind a tree, in the Trout Gulch area of Aptos.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, June 18, 2006 Volume 2 Number 2 & July 16, 2006 Volume 2 Number 3.
Santa Cruz
Witness was camping along Highway 1 near Wilder Ranch when he became aware of something coming through the tall brush from a gully that empties out of the foothills. He heard something bulky breaking a limb, and assumed there was a cow approaching. Realizing that he was hearing footsteps, he decided to move camp. As he left the area, he looked down into the gully and saw a heavily built Bigfoot that was about 8’ tall and covered in white or grey hair.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, March, 2013 Volume 5 Number 10.
Scotts Valley
A man digging in a sandhill for shark teeth finds an unusually large, apparently human molar laying on the ground in the woods above the sand cliff where people normally dig. Visually similar to those found in fossilized jaw fragments belonging to Meganthropus. He showed it to a several dentists, who all said that it was far too large to actually be human. It was submitted to the Bigfoot DNA project.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, February 17, 2008 Volume 3 Number 10.
Corralitos
Family describes series of incidences between 1998-2004. In 1998, a man driving on private driveway sees what he describes as a “homeless person wearing animal skins.” Large footprints were found deep in the hard packed road. Years later, in 2004, the reporting witness saw what he believed to be a large pile of redwood bark in his father’s yard as he drove by, but upon turning around the pile was gone. In another incident, the same man’s wife, while the two were driving down the same driveway, saw what she described as a “dark face with deep inset eyes and a shaggy head” peaking at her from behind a tree.
Source: BFRO, Report #11162.
Pescadero
Witness hears loud, fire engine-like screams from the woods behind his house in a remote canyon near Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Excellent on-site video breakdown featuring witness Michael Orr by researcher Christopher Contreras.
Zayante
Witness was riding a horse in the hills behind his house when he noticed a large, hairy creature squatted down and digging in the sand on a hillside just over 100 yards away. He observed the creature digging for about a minute before it stood up, turned around and walked on two feet along the ridge away from him.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, July 17, 2005 Volume 1, Number 3.
Half Moon Bay
Witness was at the beach with family at about 1:00am when saw a dark hairy figure crouching in the darkness near the parked car. It appeared light gray in color, had a “high head” was bulky and appeared to be moving slightly. She ran towards her mom and sister, who were still at the water’s edge.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, February 17, 2008 Volume 3 Number 10.
Scotts Valley
Two witnesses camping on Granite Creek Road hear heavy footsteps and deep, “painful” sounding breathing from a brush covered hillside for over ten minutes before seeing a 12’ tall creature silhouetted by the beams of a passing vehicle. They return the next day and find large tracks coming down the hillside to the location where they saw the creature.
Source: Register Pajaronian, “A Scotts Valley Big Foot”, June 17, 1980.
Watsonville
Witness was traveling to Mt. Madonna park from Watsonville when she saw a creature “covered in brown hair from head to toe and was huge, walking just like a man.”
Source: BFRO, Report #20197.
Scotts Valley
Two teenagers were hiking with their German Sheperd on a trail above Scotts Valley Drive when the dog ran ahead on the trail into the woods. Suddenly it came flying through the air, landing on the trail nearby before fleeing. The two young men then observed an 8-9ʼ tall, brown, hair covered creature glaring at them from the trail ahead.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, December 18, 2005 Volume 1 Number 8.
Watsonville
Witness was at camping party at a ranch on Hayes Road in the Pajaro area. After 2am he laid out his sleeping bag next to the campfire when he heard something walking down a ridge between Lewis Rd. and Vega Rd. It stopped about 60-70 yards away at the top of a “saddle” and shuffled backwards, making screeches, whistles, squeals, and grunts while violently shaking nearby trees. Witness later awoke to the sounds of something heavy stalking from below his position.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, June 18, 2006 Volume 2 Number 2.
Half Moon Bay
Witness was driving on Highway 1 when they saw a “well built but slender” creature with 3 inches of dark colored hair covering its body step over a barbed wire fence, dragging its arms as it made long strides near the radar station at the Half Moon Bay Airport. One week later, the area was closed to the public. Witness returned during the day and found large holes 3’-4’ feet deep scattered around the field where the creature crossed.
Source: Peter Byrne Database, Bigfoot Research Project. Via Mysterious SF.
Scotts Valley
Family tells The Valley Press of a series of sightings where they saw a Bigfoot feeding in the orchard adjacent to their home on Granite Creek Road. Their neighbor removed the steps to his back porch because the creature would peek in his windows.
Source: The Valley Press,“‘Sasquatch’ sighted years ago, they say”, July 2, 1980.
Ben Lomond
Sheriff’s deputies investigate report of a “very large” hair-covered “monster,” that was seen throwing tree limbs and branches into the San Lorenzo river from Glen Arbor road. Witness first heard their windows rattling around 4:00am, when they looked out and saw the creature.
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel, Volume 108, Number 44, 21 February 1964.
La Honda
Witness was camping with three friends in Portola Redwoods State Park during the off season. At some point during the night they heard a noise and glancing off the trail saw a large, upright, heavily built figure that was covered in white hair, rocking somewhat as it stared at them from the forest about 30 yards away.
Source: Bigfoot Discovery Museum Newsletter, September 17, 2006 Volume 2 Number 5.
Aptos
Witness was bike riding down Hinkley Basin Road with a friend when he saw “just behind a redwood tree a figure that was about the same color of the tree bark, dark brown. It stepped from behind the tree and ran downhill.” “It was running fast, and made heavy crashing sounds as it cut a swath through through the canyon brush for five minutes. The creature was over six feet tall, and had the shape of a man.” Sighting occured before the area was estabished as the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.
Source: BFRO, Report # 16691 & Bigfoot Discovery Museum Show, Episode 93.
Lompico
Witness, a child at the time, was sleeping in an upper bunk at a cabin in Lompico when he woke up around 6AM and saw the head and shoulders of a “gorilla” looking at him through a nearby window. Source: Mike Rugg, Bigfoot Discovery Museum Show, Ep. 221.
Felton
Young witness encounters a 7’ tall Bigfoot that brushed past him outside a rural cabin, and was possibly looking into the windows at the adults.
Source: John Green Database, Report #157.
Felton
San Francisco Evening Post writer Frank Harrison Gassaway relays the story of a “wild man of the woods that infested the forest” near Felton, and “had developed a hospitable habit of prowling around the camp at night and uttering dismal cries...”
A Note on Listed Sightings & Their Sources:
This list of Bigfoot sightings in the Santa Cruz Mountains would be incredibly sparse if not for Mike Rugg and his decades of research and service to the local Bigfoot community as the owner and curator of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, CA. Mike was a true witness advocate, offering a listening ear to anyone who came in to his museum to share their experience. This list contains sightings & encounters that stood out enough to be published in either the museum's newsletter or its YouTube channel. The Bigfoot Discovery Museum Show is still available to watch on YouTube; the newsletters were hosted on the museum's website which is no longer available. All but a few of these sightings are only known thanks to Mike making his research publicly accessible to those Bigfoot researchers and enthusiasts that call this region home.