Estes Park

(I took this picture, that sucker was huge)

The Stanley Hotel is 7,500 feet above Estes Park and an hour from Denver. It’s over 16,000 square feet and has 138 guest rooms. It’s also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a member of  Historic Hotels of America. Originally built by Freelan O. Stanley of the Stanley Steamer fame it opened on July 4th, 1909.

The hotel was made popular by novelist Stephen King. While he and his wife were staying at the hotel, King conceived the idea for his book, “The Shining”. Later the 1997 television miniseries version of “The Shining” was actually filmed at the hotel. Unlike the movie, Stephen had more artistic control with the mini series than he did with the film. I’m actually standing next to a prop from the mini series.

Throughout the history of the Stanley, ghostly encounters have been experience not only by the employees but the guests as well. Some of the apparitions seen at the Hotel include F.O. Stanley himself, his wife Flora, Lord Dunraven who the Stanley’s bought the land from, and a few others. Some of them include a maid who was seriously hurt and survived a gas lantern blast, a maintenance man named Paul who just recently died a few years ago, and a female transient named Lucy who used to live there before it’s renovation. Ghost tours are performed daily for hotel guests and visitors, and on the weekends they’ve included ghost investigations in which I was a part of. The investigation’s price is $50.00 and usually includes about a dozen people who stay in the bachelor building from 8:00pm till 1:00am. I happened to be there on Saturday for the 5:00pm tour and was able to purchase a spot for the night investigation. My equipment included a 3D camera which I was experimenting with, and my normal kit I put in my car when I go out. The kit includes a Sony Hi8 night vision camera, voice recorder, Tri-Field Natural EMF meter, and some other assorted gadgets for standard UFO investigations.  

This is a Nishika 35mm 3-D camera N8000 with a quadra lens system. Basically this camera is comprised of four 30mm two element lenses positioned to an accuracy measured in thousands of an inch. You can find this on sale throughout the Internet, this particular one was given to me by my good friend Joe Fex. Some ghost hunters use this type of camera to help with their investigations. Using 35mm film, they can get multiple images per print. Most of the time you will get 2 of the same images per print being able to achieve a stereoscopic image. Staring at the middle of the two frames and slightly crossing your eyes, you’ll be able to see a 3 dimensional image.

You can do this with any two identical images but the difference between using two identical images and using a camera which uses multiple lenses, is that the left and right images are taken by different lenses. You could pick up an anomaly on one lens, the left picture and not on the other lens, the right picture. I’m still experimenting with this camera using different types of asa film. The following images were taken using asa 200 and shot indoors, some in complete darkness. When looking at them, concentrate on the center black vertical bar while crossing your eyes slightly until you achieve three separate images. Then concentrate on the center image until you’re able to focus clearly and get a 3D image. Then you can slightly scan the 3D center image looking for any type of anomalies. It takes some practice.

The following pictures are of the  Fourth Floor and has a history of supernatural activity. This floor is where the children were kept with the nanny’s while their parents enjoyed all the outside activities of the hotel. Guests who stay on this floor have complained of hearing children playing late a night and also reports of impressions on the bed and noises in the rooms.

 This is part of a tunnel in which present day employees use to get around. This is the last stop on the guided ghost tour.

The next few pictures were taken in a building where the bachelors stayed. It wasn’t proper for single men to stay in the main building where the married couples were, so they got their own pad. The spirits who frequent this building are Flora Stanely who maintains a watchful eye over any events occurring there, Paul who was a Stanley employee and had recently passed, and Lucy who was a transcient that lived in the tunnels before the building was renovated and later died due to exposure.

Aparations are known to pass through this area and sometimes catch visitor and employees attention. In this picture (it’s a little difficult to see) the left image has an orb or dust particle just to the upper left of the top of the stainless steel containers, but the right image does not. Looking at them together achieving the 3D effect, the little orb appears to be floating.

This room is where I was getting responses from my EMF meter when I was asking questions about Lucy. All this was caught on my Sony Hi8 video camera including a nice little orb which passed right in front of me just after I asked one of my questions. The door in the background is the entrance to the tunnels where Lucy lived, so we know she passed through this room allot.

 This is one of the tunnels in which Lucy travels during her spiritual life.

I did experience some interesting things during this investigation and am currently going over my audio and video tapes. I picked up an unusual floating orb on video and need to verify if it’s actually an unknown or just a dust particle. Also while I was video taping in the hallway late at night,  I’m pretty sure I saw a shadow cross in front of me. The hallway was near a room in which Paul has been known to visit and I was calling out his name when I saw the shadow. I had my video camera rolling at the time but was not able to see the shadow through the small screen. I’m going to experiment with that segment of video and see if I can enhance the image.

I’ve been wanting to do an investigation at the Stanley for some time now, so this was a real treat for me. I do plan on going back for another try, and this time I’ll bring more gear.  There’s some experiments I want to try and a little more research on the visitors who frequent there so I’ll be better prepared too. I’ll go through my video and audio and will post any results I get which seem interesting. I need to compare the orb light to a known dust particle video to make sure It’s not a  particle floating near my lens being illuminated by the IR light. I do have some interesting video of me asking Lucy questions and getting pretty good responses on my EMF meter. I’ll review that segment and post the video on this sight a little later. So at this time I need to stop typing and start reviewing my tapes to see if I picked up any EVPs too!

It was a cold silent late Saturday afternoon, as we climbed our way to a high ridge over looking the strong yet treacherous valley. Joe stood quietly gazing through the horizon….  (No, not this again!)

Actually, it was a cold Saturday afternoon when Joe and I arrived at the Colorado location for “Part II” of our investigation.  If you remember from the previous post, we had set a bait line and needed to come back to check on it.  Also, if you remember from the previous post we had acquired some unusual evidence and needed to go back to verify it.  The problem I’ve seen with other various types of investigations;  If it be BigFoot or Alien, tremendous claims are made with just assumptions.  No, not on this website.  We don’t play that game.  Let the “posers” pose their non validated evidence, I for one tell it like it is. (well sorta)  There is still some evidence we have that I can’t talk about at this time because we’re still working on it.  So, sit back, grab a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage (heh heh) and read on.  This blog gets better.  ”Honest”.

First off, the key players on this investigation are myself, Joe Fex, my son Daniel, and his girlfriend Sarah.  Joe and I decided to bring in my son Daniel who is with the Colorado National Guard and has already done a turn in Iraq.  He helped us set-up a military type lookout without being noticed too much.  His girlfriend Sarah, is a nurse and is there in case we fall down the hill or something (hey it could happen).   Not to leave out my other two children; my son Chuck is currently in Afghanistan with the Army, and I have a daughter Ashley who is not in the military (whew).  Oh, neither is my wife Tammy. (double whew)

Going back to the site where we set the bait line we noticed it had come down.  Upon inspection of the rope it appeared as if it was pulled down.  We did see small creature bite marks on the rope near the food tubs.  But, where the rope was tied to the tree, it appeared to have been stressed.  Your guess is as good as mine.  There were no unusually large foot prints in the fresh snow, so to speculate is all we have.  The rope was at least 7 feet from the ground at its lowest point, so something either pulled or got caught up on the rope and yanked it down.  I’ve seen deer and elk stand on their hind legs so that’s one possibility, another is a fat squirrel.  Either way we didn’t see evidence of a “bi-pod” creature, human or non-human.

I had set up multiple cameras again to monitor specific areas as we stayed the night.  This camera is a wireless security camera attached to a tripod. This was our “real-time” eyes keeping watch on some “treats” left by the witness for our visitor.  The treats are off in the distance located on the corner railing.

My laptop sat in a nearby cabin where I could monitor the wireless camera.  Off to the right you can see the receiver for the camera.  It worked pretty well, but currently I’m shopping for night vision wired cameras with DVR.  During the night when the temperature dropped, I was getting interference.  Still, it was a second set of eyes in which I could record on the laptop.

I love this camera. It’s my Moultrie Infra Red Game camera.  Able to shoot multiple pictures or video, it works like a charm.  We positioned this camera up high to get a good sweep of the area.  I had two other night vision cameras both Sony Hi8’s.  Sony is my choice of camera because out of all the cameras I’ve used through all my investigative years, I’ve gotten the best results with them.  Anyway, I had one camera stationary on a tripod keeping an eye on the woods coming to the porch area.  The other camera was my “hand cam” which I kept mobile with me.  The one thing I can’t stand is investigators going out in the field and not bringing proper equipment.  They’ll say, “you should have seen what I saw, too bad I didn’t have my camera with me to prove it”.  Yeah right, not us.  Anywhere we hiked we had multiple videos and still digital cameras.

One thing you must remember, when you’re in God’s country, you have to realize who’s backyard you’re really in.  The markings on this tree are too high for the deer we saw, so how about an elk?  I saw scratch marks, so how about a bear stretching and sharpening his claws?  I don’t think I’ve ever read that a BigFoot had claws, although I guess he could have had his nails done.  Anywho, Joe is about 6 feet tall.  Maybe our hunter friends reading this blog can clue us in.

This was an interesting find during our late night hike.  BigFoot has been known to build structures like this for shelter.  After a closer examination we concluded it was human made, probably used for hunting.  My son Daniel is shown here inside the structure.  He’s over 6 feet tall and had more than enough room to move around inside.  Even though we didn’t find any actual evidence a human made this, we also didn’t find any hair samples near it’s opening pointing to a non human.  So, you go for the obvious relating to the environment you’re in.  Colorado is very popular for deer and elk hunting.

AND NOW FOR MORE EVIDENCE!

CHECK THIS OUT!

During mine and Joe’s long afternoon hike into the woods, we came across these tracks.  We’re a good hour away from our base camp and thick into the trees.  The tracks were old and covered by a light snow.  We estimated at least an 18 inch print with over a four foot gate.  YEAH FOUR FOOT GATE! (i love caps)  We didn’t have to notice or speculate, there was a definite left-right gate to these tracks.  It sill sends chills down my spine, to come across this when you’re so far from the base, is just awe inspiring.

So what did we do?

Well, we did what any good BigFoot investigators would do.  We located some falling trees and built a tripod.  A tripod?  Yep, Joe had experienced this before.  It seems our large friends like to leave markers in particular areas.  I’m guessing a Clan marker similar to our Native American Indians.  This would be too obvious to be a trail marker, unless you were leaving them for aircraft.  Just in case they come back through this area, we left them a marker.  Cool, huh..

After we built this make-shift tee pee, with a couple of hours of sunlight left, we decided to follow the large tracks we came across.

This is what we found.

The tracks were fading out and crossed in front of these two trees.  BigFoot investigators have written and talked about seeing structures resembling this one in areas where BigFoot were sighted.  Joe explained that BigFoot generally leave markers like this to warn others venturing into the area.  At first glance you may think, the same way I did, that this is a natural Mother Nature marker, two fallen trees.  And it could very well be, but we did closely look at these trees and noticed the left one had a fork at the top that just happened to catch a nearby tree.  The right one would have had to fall without breaking the top branches to lie on the lower ones for support.  Still 50/50?  Could be BigFoot, could be natural.  One thing to remember though, we tracked large prints right to this.  Coincidence?  Maybe… or maybe not…

Let’s talk about some evidence we were able to verify from the previous investigation to this last one.

Matt and Trina had picked up a very scary howling-like sound on their video camera late at nigh.  We cut audio from the video and sent it out for analysis.  At this point we think we know what it is, but we’re still verifying it.  When the video is added to the website in the future and you hear it, you’ll get shivers. I did, it’s pretty scary.

The witness was still setting food out on a plate for the big guy, and the food was taken every day.  Daniel and I, and my cameras did pick up the local natives taking advantage of these free treats.  Just at sunrise Sunday morning we watched in amazement, Super Squirrel.  Yep, Super Squirrel.  We watched a “fat” squirrel climb a tree five or so feet higher than the top of the railing of the porch where the food was placed.  He then leaped a good eight feet from the tree right on the damn plate.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The accuracy this little varmint had was way cool.  He (or she) then picked up a peanut butter sandwich half his (or her) size and jumped down.  This would explain why we didn’t see any small animal tracks on the snow on the railing.  Amazing!  I also recorded a very happy blue jay landing on the plate and having a snack.  Does this disprove the possibility BigFoot was ever taking the food?  No, because we jumped on this investigation when the witness said the plate was missing one morning, then placed back on the railing the following morning.  Our little friends can’t do that.

There’s still other evidence we have that I can’t devulge yet.  We should have the analysis done in time for the video.

Summary:  It’s mine and Joe’s belief that there was a BigFoot presence at this location sometime in January 2010.  The lack of fresh compacted tracks tells us either this was a “walk about” individual, family, or a family which moves constantly from one location to another.  Joe has been tracking BigFoot sightings in this Colorado area for years, and has a personal map where he shows a definite pattern.  The pattern “over the years” goes right through the territory we’ve been investigating.  Our assumptions on our belief are based on tracks we found and other multiple sightings within the past years.  Two years ago Joe investigated a sighting within a couple of miles of our current site.  Just like investigating UFOs, we rely heavily on eye witness testimonies, like our courts do.  Then acting like detectives, we go out and look for actual evidence to substantiate the eye witness claims. We then compare the evidence we gather with other investigations and previous research reaching our current conclusion. Which is? The Big Guy is out there….

It was a cold, dark and eerie evening as I laid back on the large four post bed hidden away in a back bedroom in a silent, yet spooky, old cabin. Slightly moving back and forth, I finally found a comfortable position to lay my tired soul after a long day of exhausting field investigation. Closing my eyes ever so slightly to bask in the warmth of the plaid-woollen blanket, which I found placed on an old oak chair, I also reached for the nearby feathery down pillow, placing it slowly beneath my ever so aching head. Falling into a deep and very deserving sleep, I reminisced and pondered over my long and very consuming day…..

What the hell? (I think I’m going to puke!)

Joe and I joked about some writers who turn a BigFoot investigation into a Harlequin novel. Writers… sheeesh! They should stick to writing, because BigFoot investigations really aren’t that glamorous. Oh sure, the country side is always beautiful, but you have to watch out for those pesky eight foot Sasquatch’s that lurk behind the trees just out of eye sight. And “hindsight” is always something to consider especially when cutting the trails with new and innovative investigative techniques. So, when I had the opportunity to join my good friend, “Joe Fex” on a Bigfoot research project, or, as I like to say, “Investigation”, then not only did I jump, but leaped at the opportunity to do it.  

Me with Joe Fex, founder and curator of the APE-X-Research website. Uh… I’m the one on the right, not the middle.

Joe and I have been friends for a few years now and we have shared a lot of information and very interesting stories, too (to say the least)! So, when Joe informed me about a new sighting in an area we’ve been watching for the past couple of years, I was excited to join him on his investigation. Joe had previously researched this area interviewing different witnesses so I had high hopes in finding some clues. When you have something unusual occurring in an area with multiple witness reports over multiple years, chances are, “They’re seeing something there!” We quickly made arrangements, gathered our trusty investigative tools, and high-tailed it to this “non-disclosed” location. Ok here is some info:

Location: Northwest Colorado. Because this is an-ongoing investigation and research project, at this time, this is all I can reveal.

Eye Witness (name withheld): Very well-educated woman in her mid 50’s with a beautiful home and cabin on her land.

Occurrence: Witness was initially placing food on her back deck to feed the neighborhood foxes. October of 2009, she started hearing the sound of pebbles hitting her roof. The direction of the sound appeared as though the pebbles were being thrown from the nearby wooded ridge. Around this same time she noticed that her very large Alaskan Malamute dog, started acting strange. Being an outside dog all of its life, she’s never noticed this type of behavior. The animal, at times, was showing signs of insecurity and whimpered as if being scared of something nearby. One day she found a seventeen inch long footprint with very distinct toe impressions near the house. She also noticed something or someone was unsuccessfully trying to remove the metal screw clamp which secured the Malamute to his leash. Fearing for her safety and not knowing what was possibly eating the food she was setting out for the foxes, she stopped leaving the food. The next night something tried to enter the sliding glass door near the dog area which broke the double pane glass. Not knowing where to turn and considering the large footprints she was finding near and around her home, she started to wonder if the Sasquatch stories could be true. She then started researching various BigFoot organizations and quickly realized most of them were targeting capture and possible destruction techniques. Weighing the possibilities of vacating her home and moving out of the area, she tried one last time and contacted Joe Fex as a suggestion from a mutual friend. After various phone conversations, Joe instructed the witness to perform different experiments to confirm if an outside investigation was to proceed. One experiment was to put small portions of different types of food on a plate in an area where small animals couldn’t get to it. One night the plate disappeared, then returned a couple of days later, laying correctly at its original location. This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back which justified an on-site investigation.

Sighting: Witness states seeing what appears to be possible young Sasquatch running through her yard.

Recent Occurrence: Most recent occurrence was three days before this investigation.

Matt Morgan and Trina Bivens with Post Interactive, Colorado Springs, joined the investigation to video document the procedures and interview Joe Fex for an upcoming segment for this website.

Joe Fex is discussing various research and investigative techniques with Matt.

Large foot-like prints were found all through-out the location but unfortunately were filled in by the previous snow fall. This was a deterrent from capturing adequate castings. Other areas where large footprints were compressed into the hard pack snow were within well-traveled deer trails which kept us from gathering good castings. It was almost as if who or what was making the foot prints, purposely made it extremely difficult for us to cast molds.

Multiple experiments were tried, this one was orchestrated by Joe. Off in the distance you can see a rope tied between two trees in an area where we believe our visitors travel.

This image shows a closer look at the “food” experiment.

Joe placed samples of different types of organic foods from fruits to fish in sealed containers with vent holes. Along with the containers we placed whole grain onion bagels as an extra treat. The rope was tied between two trees stretching approximately 20 ft., with the lowest section seven and a half ft. from ground level. The rope was placed in an area where the snow was not disturbed too much in hopes to capture a good foot print. Using the various foods would enable us to understand a particular like or dislike from our friend. If you look to the left of the picture you’ll notice a shirt also hanging from the tree. This is one of Joe’s shirts left there to identify Joe’s scent for our visitor. This technique is to familiarize them with Joe to enhance future investigations. This experiment was not tampered with, so we left it in hopes of future interaction.

Other experiments included amplified audio calls from Joe’s archive. Various calls were projected in hopes of a welcomed reply. Through the night and up to dawn we had two night vision video cameras placed in possible contact areas. One camera was placed near the dog where something tried to enter the house through the glass doors, and the other was placed watching the “food” experiment. Auxiliary IR lights were used to illuminate the areas for the night vision. One other motion sensing digital camera was placed in a location where we suspected animal travel.

Shown here is Matt and Trina interviewing Joe for the upcoming website segment. This interview was taped somewhere in between 1:00am and 3:30 am Sunday. Joe was unbelievably energetic for that hour of night or should I say morning. Was it because he’s a trained researcher known to stay up all hours of the night to full-fill his goals, or was it the two pots of coffee he had brewed? He does brew good coffee.

This image was taken with the still digital game camera. Unfortunately, the only life this camera picked up that night was the deer walking by in the distance. Pictures like this insure that this particular camera does what it claims to do. Please note the time and temperature. We had to bundle up when checking the cameras and doing our routine scouting.

Summary: This investigation is so recent as of this writing, that we still have hours and hours of video tape to analyze. Field techniques were performed, pictures were taken and several prints were measured. Currently this is just an initial report. The location and the witness’s name is being withheld because this is an ongoing research and investigation project. We have very unusual evidence and will report it here on this website in segments as we confirm it valid or invalid. I can’t tell you (at this time) what the evidence is, but it’s pretty good and we’re all excited. So this blog is, “The Teaser Blog”.

As a UFO or Paranormal researcher and investigator, I’ve been pretty lucky to be involved with such a diverse area of this phenomenon. From Roswell, to Alien Abductions, to Cattle Mutilations and Sasquatch, this is a very exciting roller coaster ride. This last E-Ticket ride was orchestrated by Joe Fex who, “believe it or not”, is actually pretty good at what he does and I say that jokingly because he’s a good friend of mine. If we didn’t have a person as knowledgeable as Joe to walk us through the do’s and don’ts of this type of investigation and keep us safe while doing it, then not only could we screw up a proper field investigation but possible ruin any chance of future interaction.

And with that said, If I ever come face to face with the proverbial Big Guy, I hope I don’t scream like a school girl!