From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - The Mysterious Lights of Marfa, Texas
Tucked away in the remote desert of west Texas, the tiny town of Marfa has become an unlikely tourist destination, all thanks to its mysterious glowing nighttime apparitions. For over a century, unexplained multicolored lights have appeared hovering above the horizon east of town. Dubbed the “Marfa Lights”, these ethereal orbs seem to defy explanation, sparking endless debate and speculation among locals and visitors alike.
By day, Marfa is a sleepy ranching community of barely 2,000 residents. But after dark, travelers flock here, camping out and waiting patiently for the enigmatic lights to materialize. Descriptions of the Marfa Lights vary, but most report seeing glowing spheres, ovals, or streaks of red, yellow, orange, blue, and green. The orbs dart around erratically, splitting into two lights or merging back together. Some remain still while others zip across the landscape.
The phenomena was first documented in 1883 when a young cowhand reported seeing “ghostly lights” dancing above the prairie. Since then, the area has attracted scientists, paranormal investigators, and curious thrill-seekers hoping to glimpse the oddity for themselves. Explanations have ranged from fires, mirages, reflections, and even extraterrestrial activity, but no theory has conclusively solved the mystery.
The best spot to see the Marfa Lights is along Highway 90 about 9 miles east of town. A scenic overlook here gives panoramic views of Mitchell Flat where the orbs most often appear. Go after dusk, find a comfortable spot to sit, and wait patiently with your eyes trained east toward the Chinati Mountains. Be prepared to be patient. The lights are notoriously unpredictable and fickle. Some nights, visitors see dozens while other nights none appear.
Don’t be discouraged if the lights don’t show during your first stargazing session. Many longtime observers suggest allowing at least three nights to have the best chance of spotting them. Bring blankets, lawn chairs, and snacks to keep you comfortable during the long vigils. And leave the bright lights behind. Any ambient light will reduce your night vision and likelihood of seeing the ephemeral glows.
What else is in this post?
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - The Mysterious Lights of Marfa, Texas
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Backpacking Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Chupacabra Spotted in Puerto Rico?
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Loch Ness Monster Resurfaces in Scotland
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Alien Abductions Reported in Rural Australia
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Mothman Sightings in West Virginia
- From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Unexplained Cattle Mutilations in Colorado
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Backpacking Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest
From tranquil alpine lakes to mossy rainforests, the Pacific Northwest's rugged wilderness areas seem primed for Bigfoot sightings. This remote region has birthed countless tales of hairy hominid encounters, making it a tempting destination for cryptozoological adventurers. Sasquatch devotees embark on multi-day treks through Washington and Oregon's backcountry, ears perked and eyes peeled for any sign of the mythical beast.
While most return with little more than photos of pristine peaks and curious wildlife, some backpackers share extraordinary stories that keep the Bigfoot legend alive. Near Mount St. Helens, a group swore they heard heavy footsteps and guttural grunting echoing through the night. In the Goat Rocks Wilderness, hikers discovered massive, humanlike prints in a marshy meadow. Others report finding peculiar branch structures and rock piles that could be primitive shelters or signaling landmarks.
Of course, the Pacific Northwest offers far more than just Bigfoot's domain. Backpacking here winds through rugged Cascade peaks with glacier-carved valleys that dazzle with wildflowers in spring and summer. Cool, moss-draped forests shelter chattering creeks and crystal clear pools perfect for a brisk dip. Keep your eyes trained overhead for a glimpse of the rare spotted owl or the majestic bald eagle soaring above its mountain kingdom.
While you may not encounter a Sasquatch, you'll likely see dozens of other creatures like black bears, elk, coyotes, and the timid pika with its adorable Mickey Mouse ears. With thousands of miles of trails crisscrossing pristine wilderness managed by the National Park and Forest Services, options for multi-day treks are boundless. Top choices include the Wonderland Trail encircling Mount Rainier, the Pacific Crest Trail weaving along the Cascades, and the remote North Cascades Traverse across jagged peaks and icy glaciers.
Just be sure to come prepared with sturdy boots, plenty of layers, and rain gear - the Pacific Northwest is known for fickle weather. Keep food stored safely to minimize encounters with bears and other critters. Pack a first aid kit for minor injuries and a filtration system to enjoy the pure, glacial melt waters.
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Chupacabra Spotted in Puerto Rico?
Puerto Rico is known for its picturesque beaches, lively culture, and unique cuisine. But recently, news reports coming from the U.S. territory suggest a more sinister inhabitant may lurk within its lush jungles - the mythical Chupacabra.
While the blood-sucking creature is considered mere folklore by many, alleged sightings over the years have brought the animal into the spotlight. This past month, strange killings of livestock on rural farms have many convinced that the Chupacabra walks among them once again.
Farmers across the countryside have reported waking to find their chickens, goats, and sheep brutally slain, with puncture wounds perforating their necks and bodies completely drained of blood. Some describe seeing brief glimpses of a hunched, spiny creature scurrying away into the underbrush after feasting on its prey. They speak of a beast walking on two legs, with scaly greenish-gray skin, sharp fangs, and claws ideal for latching onto victims.
The attacks bear an eerie similarity to a rash of slayings that took place back in 1995, when over 150 farm animals were viciously murdered, giving rise to whispers of the Chupacabra’s return. While skeptics blame more mundane culprits like wild dogs or blood-sucking parasites, many locals swear that the wounds could only be inflicted by the Chupacabra’s saber-like teeth.
Some farmers have even set up night watches, arming themselves with cameras and rifles in hopes of capturing the enigmatic creature on film or bagging a specimen as evidence of its existence. A few grainy photos have surfaced from these vigils, though most are inconclusive. Still, in a place like Puerto Rico, where folklore and superstition run deep, even dubious proof seems enough to cement the Chupacabra’s status as more than mere myth.
The curious happenings beg the question – could an unknown predator truly lurk within Puerto Rico’s remote rainforests and inaccessible caves? Or are these attacks merely the work of clever coyotes whose true cunning we underestimate? Perhaps, like with the Loch Ness Monster or Mokele Mbembe, our desire to believe overwhelms our reasoning. But with so many terrified farmers fearing for their livelihoods, getting to the bottom of these mysterious killings is of the essence before hysteria spreads.
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Loch Ness Monster Resurfaces in Scotland
The mythical Loch Ness Monster, affectionately called “Nessie” by locals, has allegedly resurfaced in Scotland’s deep and mysterious Loch Ness. This fresh sighting has reignited public intrigue in the centuries-old legend of the aquatic cryptid said to inhabit the United Kingdom’s largest lake.
Reports of a massive, long-necked creature surfacing from the murky depths of Loch Ness date back 1,500 years with tales of Saint Columba encountering a beast during his missionary work. More contemporaneous accounts soared in the 1930s after several motorists driving along the lakeside reported seeing an enormous creature swimming across the surface. The fascination with Nessie has scarcely abated since.
This latest alleged sighting comes from 55-year-old Eoin O’Faodhagain, a Nessie devotee who claims to have logged over 1,000 hours surveilling the lake. Around 9:30pm on a clear January evening, O’Faodhagain spotted a five-foot-long black shape projecting from the water 800 meters from shore. Through his powerful telescopic camera, he captured fleeting footage of what appears to be a creature with a serpentine head and humps traveling southward across the loch before submerging once more.
O’Faodhagain immediately shared his eerie discovery with fellow “Nessie hunters”, sparking excited discussion online over whether this was finally definitive proof of the Loch Ness Monster’s existence. While skeptics quickly dismissed it as another case of mistaken identity or hoax, believers tout it as the best evidence in over a decade that something sinister indeed lurks within the famous lake.
So what could explain this bizarre phenomenon? Scientists have argued Nessie sightings are simply large fish, floating logs, seals, or boat wakes often seen from shore through distorting fog. But sonar readings have also detected mysteriously large, fast-moving underwater objects that defy identification. Some experts theorize Nessie may be a relic population of Plesiosaurs, an order of carnivorous aquatic reptiles thought extinct for 66 million years. Or possibly an aquatic mammal like a whale or giant seal found its way inland from the nearby North Sea to evolve in isolation in Loch Ness for millennia.
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Alien Abductions Reported in Rural Australia
Nestled within the sun-scorched Outback, the Australian interior seems an unlikely hotspot for extraterrestrial activity. Yet remote communities scattered across this vast wilderness have produced an unexpected number of alleged alien abduction reports over the years. While officials dismiss most as vivid dreams or drunken delusions, certain chilling accounts refuse to be easily debunked, leaving even hardnosed skeptics struggling to explain the more vivid and detailed testimonies.
One of the most high-profile cases involves Steve and Dawn Hart, a couple driving home to Alice Springs after visiting family in 1993. While passing through the desolate Stuart Highway at 3am, their car was suddenly bathed in an intensely bright light. Next thing the Harts knew, they had “lost” three hours, and were parked haphazardly off the highway with their watches oddly malfunctioning. Under hypnosis later, the couple recalled being “floated” into a bright room where alien beings with egg-shaped bald heads conducted intimate medical experiments on them before erasing their memories.
Indigenous Australians have shared stories of strange sky lights kidnapping tribal members for generations. But abduction accounts spread more widely throughout settler communities in the 1960s, when remote Outback roadhouses and sheep ranches started reporting incidents of lost time and eerie experiments by otherworldly “visitors”.
Recently, cases have emerged from Australia's interior mining communities. In 2014, Alan Dickson, a Senior Mine Supervisor, reported being taken from his bedroom in a mining camp and into a giant gleaming dome crammed with advanced technology. He described humanoid creatures with large luminous eyes calmly working at control desks before placing him in strange, needle-filled tubes. Like many cases, under hypnosis he recalled only fragmented images with many details just beyond his grasp.
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
Of all Egypt's haunting mysteries, few rival the ominous legend surrounding King Tutankhamun's tomb. When Howard Carter unearthed the long-lost burial chamber in 1922, the pharaoh's remains had lain undisturbed for over 3,000 years. But soon after opening the site, strange happenings befell several members of Carter's team.
Within weeks of entering the tomb, Lord Carnarvon, the expedition's financial backer, died unexpectedly from an infected mosquito bite. This chilling event spawned outlandish stories of a "mummy's curse" exacting revenge on those who dared disturb Tutankhamun's slumber. Tales circulated of curse-induced illnesses, freak accidents, and eerie paranormal events afflicting over 20 people associated with the dig site.
While most historians dismiss the curse as mere coincidence spun into fantastical myth, some peculiar evidence keeps the legend alive. Visitors to the Egyptian Museum reported seeing the mummy's casket move suddenly on its own. A museum worker who x-rayed the mummy later died under bizarre circumstances. Even Carter himself succumbed to lymphatic cancer just a few years after unlocking Tut's tomb.
For dashing adventurers and armchair archaeologists alike, King Tut's mystique proves irresistible. Fueled by vivid ancient myths, the tomb's curse transforms this relic of Egypt's past into an alluring, if ominous, travel draw. Who can resist the temptation to uncover cursed secrets hidden for millennia beneath shifting sands? Never mind that years of scientific analysis have detected no toxins or curses within the tomb. The vivid stories persist, fodder for imaginative minds and future tales passed down by starry-eyed visitors.
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Mothman Sightings in West Virginia
In the shadows of Appalachia lurks a creature of cryptozoological infamy – West Virginia’s winged oddity known as Mothman. While skeptics scoff, this beast has terrorized locals for over 50 years with sightings and omens foretelling impending disasters.
The first documented encounter occurred in November 1966 when five men working at a cemetery spotted a brown humanoid figure arise from a nearby tree. As the winged entity soared over their heads, they gaped at its glowing red eyes and a massive ten-foot wingspan allowing it to glide effortlessly through the air. Terrified, they sped from the area, only for one man’s eyes to remain swollen and red for days after.
More sightings soon followed from both frightened citizens and intrigued curiosity seekers. Multiple eyewitnesses described an ominous gray figure towering over six feet with jagged wings folded behind its back. When the creature spread its appendages, some estimated a wingspan exceeding 15 feet, easily enough to enable short spurts of flight. All who saw it noted the Mothman’s broad torso tapering into thin, peg-like limbs that moved with unnatural fluidity and balance. And its radiant circular red eyes sparked the deepest dread.
Throughout 1967, families living around Point Pleasant reported this winged silhouette stalking their homes, uttering screeches like radio static. Pet dogs growled and cowered anxiously at its presence while livestock stampeded their pens in a panic, as if sensing an apex predator.
Then in December, the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant to Ohio dramatically collapsed into the river, killing 46 people. Some claimed Mothman sightings and odd premonitions foretold this tragedy. Had this winged omen attempted to warn the town? Mothman eyewitnesses certainly believed so.
From UFOs to Bigfoot: The Wildest, Wackiest Travel Tales of 2023 - Unexplained Cattle Mutilations in Colorado
Tucked within Colorado’s remote plains and prairies, cattle ranches sprawl across rugged rangeland little changed since the Old West era. But in recent decades, many ranchers have awoke to discover their livestock gruesomely slaughtered and mutilated by an unseen and inexplicable force.
Since the mid-1970s, hundreds of cattle and other livestock have been found with organs surgically removed with almost surgical precision. Their eyeballs, tongues, genitals, and rectums are neatly excised while the corpses display no blood spilled nearby. Often, the animals’ bones are shattered as if dropped from a great height. Yet, there are never any footprints or tire tracks found nearby despite the muddy terrain, and no blood trails suggesting the animal was dragged. Predators like wolves or mountain lions leave messier, more savage wounds, and coyotes would not have the strength to lift full grown cows. Even experienced ranchers are baffled.
Many mutilations follow a chillingly similar pattern. A bright light is spotted overheard on the night in question. The next morning, a prized cow worth thousands is found dead and disfigured. Some whisper of UFOs and cattle-mutilating aliens conducting bizarre experiments. In the 1970s, even the FBI investigated but could not explain how the precise, bloodless wounds were inflicted without leaving traces on the ground.
Ranchers have suffered millions in damages from the killings, often losing prized breeding stock. Yet calling law enforcement seems futile, with helicopters unable to spot perpetrators scattered across remote countryside. Frustrated ranchers have staked out their pastures with night vision goggles and guns hoping to catch the elusive mutilators in the act, to no avail. With over 10,000 cattle inhabiting these sprawling rangelands, vanishing into the hills and arroyos, solving these crimes seems near impossible without more manpower or resources.
Some ranchers near mutilation hot zones like Alamosa, Cortez, and Trinidad, have installed cameras and drones to surveil their herds. A few grainy videos reveal shadowy figures under the moonlight but not enough detail to identify the vandals. Ranchers also swab samples from carcasses hoping DNA or other evidence could implicate predators, cults, or modern-day rustlers. But results have proven inconclusive, with forensic labs unable to pinpoint exactly what killed the animals.