JACKSON, Wyo. — Boo!
Spooky season is in full swing, with pumpkin patches and costume parties galore. Buckrail asked readers to share the spookiest thing they’ve ever seen in Jackson, and as usual, the readers delivered. Read on to enjoy some locally sourced thrills.
In 1993, I stayed in a cabin in Colter Bay Village with my now ex-wife. We spent the day in Yellowstone and got back late and tired. Around 2 or 3 a.m., I was awakened by a scratching sound in the pitch dark room. The scratching sounded like long nails scraping against the interior of the log cabin. The sound would start in a corner of the room and abruptly stop. There would be 10 to 20 seconds of complete silence and then it would start up again on the ceiling or on a wall on the opposite side of the room. Except for the scratching, there was absolute silence in that room, I couldn’t hear a single movement. Nothing would physically move around the room to explain the scratching.
I laid motionless for about 10 minutes just listening to the event before quietly waking up my wife. We listened to the unexplained scratching for another few minutes until she was overcome by fear and whispered to me to turn on the nightstand light. I slowly reached up out of the sheets and turned the light on. The second the light clicked on, a huge “bolt” of invisible energy shot out of the room through a small window directly in front of the bed. It was so quick, and so powerful and loud that we both screamed simultaneously. Nothing else happened that night but we were totally creeped out and checked out the next morning. Before leaving, we noticed there was still snow behind our cabin and directly under the window. We decided to check for any animal or human tracks but the snow was undisturbed in that area. There had been no “physical” activity around that window the night before.
Eek! Here’s another tale of things going bump in the night in a national park:
While backpacking in Yellowstone many years ago, one night we were awoken when we heard the most awful and loud, what I can best describe as a very high-pitch scream with a gurgling sound. Lasting about 10 seconds. Then a large amount of yips and howls for the rest of the night.
Shudder! One survey respondent kept their answer short and sweet: “Aliens over Mosquito Creek.” We have questions!
Many survey participants discussed close brushes with wildlife. One said, “Face to face with a grizzly bear at 20 yards. Luckily for me he wasn’t interested.” Another said, “Walking out of my laundry room at Ponderosa at night to find my dog and myself standing between a moose and her baby. I would rather take my chances with an exorcism.”
This reader took a moment before they understood what they saw:
About a decade ago, I was renting a room in a home on the Village Road across the street from the Teton Science School housing property. Very early one morning, I was waiting for my ride to work in Jackson and I was standing in the driveway when a large dark shadow of an animal ran from the ditch and into the Cottonwood trees. It was pre-dawn and although my eyes had adjusted it was still very dark. The animal was about waist height and agile. If I hadn’t been looking straight across the street, I would have missed it. Within seconds, I realized that I had seen something different. It was way bigger than a house cat or even the dogs in the neighborhood. The hair stood up on my neck and I headed for the garage to wait for the boss’ arrival. Later that day or maybe the next, a juvenile mountain lion was spotted on the roof of someone’s house in the South Park area. I’m convinced that I spooked him/her that morning when I walked towards the end of the driveway. I was lucky and spooked as well!
One reader answered that sometimes people making bad decisions can be scarier than anything supernatural. “Drunk people driving Teton Pass,” they answered.
As always, some respondents took the opportunity to be jokesters. One person responded, “Over-tourism.” Another said, “Rent prices.” We appreciate that our readers enjoy a sense of humor.
Happy Halloween season from Buckrail!
