NUFORC UFO Sighting 183117

Occurred: 2024-08-01 22:00 Local
Reported: 2024-09-20 02:25 Pacific
Duration: 10-20 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Little Alps, OR, USA

Shape: Orb
Color: Amber, orangish red
Estimated Size: 10-12 feet in diameter
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: Northwest
Angle of Elevation: 2
Closest Distance: 30-40 feet
Estimated Speed: Slow, walking pace.
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Animals reacted

At 10pm on 8/1/2024, at Anthony Lakes in eastern Oregon, 3 witnesses saw a giant orange orb 10-12 feet in diameter hovering over water.

From July 30th until August 3rd 2024, my extended family met for our annual camping trip in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon at Anthony Lakes Resort. As we always do, we stayed at campsite #33 which is a hike-in site, about a quarter mile south from the parking lot/bathroom/boat launch area on the southeastern edge of Anthony Lake.

Anthony Lakes is a very special place for my family. My grandparents and their six children (my mother and five uncles) ran the resort every summer starting in the early 1970s. After the cafe and cabins were taken down by the forest service in the late 1980s my family retired from their summer work but continued the tradition of coming together there every summer. When my mother passed away, we spread her ashes in the lake. My grandmother has since passed as well and her ashes will be spread in a special little spot she chose years prior. In fact all of us have communicated to each other our favorite places at Anthony where we wish to rest after death.

My grandfather has spent much time building artful benches to install in various locations at the lakes. He and my uncles sourced wood from the area and lovingly assembled each one in dedication to a specific person who has passed on.The first one was installed last summer for my grandmother. By the date of our trip, which was over his 96th birthday, he had completed three more benches and they were all installed in their carefully chosen locations.

We usually stay at Anthony Lakes for several weeks at a time but we had been prevented from arriving on our planned date due to the nearby Durkee fire and other wildfires in the region causing restrictions and road closures. As a result there were hardly any people camping or visiting the area so it was extremely quiet. There were no other people camping in any of the hike-in spots near the lake the entire time and very few people around in general outside of lodge staff and local day use visitors.

On the night of Thursday August 1st 2024, we had some strange experiences. Shortly after dark my sons went down to the boat launch area to look for frogs and toads. Our family rule is that we catch them, name them, thank them, and then let them go where we found them. The boys came back excited because they had found a large adult western toad they wanted to show me. After marveling over it,I had them lead me back to where they found it so we could let it go. As we watched our toad friend wander off, a light appeared across the lake from us on the west shore right about where one of the benches had been installed. It was a small amber circle of light and didn’t shine in a beam like a flashlight. The light blinked, flickered, disappeared, and reappeared a few times. We shined our flashlights towards it off and on but it was too far away for us to determine any information about the source. It looked to be about the size of a golf ball and we figured it was probably just a strange colored flashlight so we did not think much of it.

Later around 10pm, after everyone else in camp was asleep, I asked my 6ft tall, athletic, blue belt in karate, outdoorsman teenage son to walk me from camp to the bathroom. We stopped for a moment at the first bridge and shined our lights into the creek. We saw a brook trout below with very swollen popped out looking eyes.The poor thing was swimming erratically in circles and bumping into rocks. I wanted to take a picture to send to ODFW but I had left my phone in camp so we continued on.

As we made our way we noticed a very large, bright orange and red light, shimmering like blazing fire, on or near the water of Anthony Lake. There are trees growing in the strip of space between the trail and the lake so we did not have a clear line of sight but the trees are spread out enough to see through them pretty well.

Since fire danger was extreme and there was a burn ban in effect at the time, we worried there was a wildfire starting or that a person had carelessly built a bonfire on the shore so we shined our flashlights in that direction to see better and continued to walk the path. The strange orange light seemed to respond to our flashlights and began to move slowly toward us, similar to a walking pace.

As it moved we could see that it was not coming from a source on the land around the lake and it appeared to be free floating in the air, not attached to anything, hovering about 6 feet above the lake. The distinct orange reflection beneath it on the water's surface was incredibly bright and large, shimmering in the pattern of the rippling waves so it was clear there was no boat or other object beneath it that could have been a source.

The closer it came toward us the brighter and bigger it appeared. It seemed to be spherical in shape but did not have clearly defined edges as one would expect to see in a solid object.

The orange red light emitting from it was intensely brilliant. It appeared almost like a liquid ball of fire, chaotically radiating swirls, shimmers, and flicks of flaming light, while also holding its shape.

Its size is hard to estimate as it seemed to get larger as it drew near but we think it was at least 10-12 feet in diameter, about the size of a standard circle trampoline frame.

The orb of light made no sound and the silence of the night was profound. The geology of this area amplifies sound with echoes bouncing across the waters of multiple lakes and surrounding mountains so the absence of sound at this time was notable.

While we made these observations and watched the ball of light follow and draw ever closer to us, seemingly growing in size and intensity, we felt an increasing sense of terror as we approached the clearing of the parking lot.

Just as we came to the edge of the tree cover my son grabbed my arm and said, "F-No, we are leaving now!" The glowing light was moving toward the boat launch at the edge of the parking lot at this moment which was adjacent to the same open area we needed to cross to reach the bathroom.

I tried to convince my son to continue forward but his "strong survival instinct" kicked in and he absolutely refused. He said while he was looking at it just then, he thought he saw it morph in pattern looking like a skull inside the light and he was not taking one more step closer to its vicinity. He grabbed my arm and practically dragged me back to camp with the ball of light following and pacing us up the shoreline.

Once we arrived at camp away from the view of the lake I still needed to use the bathroom so I woke my uncle and told him.The three of us headed back down the trail and the light was still visible but seemed smaller and had moved away from us, further out in the middle of the water toward the northwest end of the lake, close to where my grandmother’s bench sits. I had my phone this time but it was too far away to get a clear picture. My uncle had us turn off the flashlights and said he was going to "sneak up on it." He left the trail and made his way through the trees toward the shore while my son and I continued down the path toward the bathroom.

With his eyes fixed on the strange light, my uncle stumbled upon a sleeping deer which spooked the deer and made it jump up and run around. This scared the life out of him so he turned back toward the trail. As we made our way down the trail the ball of light was harder and harder to see. As we breached the clearing into the parking lot, the light was suddenly gone.

The three of us walked to the edge of the lake at the boat launch and pondered our strange experience while stargazing.We wondered if the small orange light we saw earlier in the night had any relation to the huge one.The poor bewildered deer wandered around and stayed rather close to us which we noted as odd behavior. On the way back I stopped and took a picture of the fish which was sent to ODFW after our return home.

My family has been spending time at Anthony Lakes every summer for the last 50 years and while we have seen and heard strange things in the past no one has ever experienced anything this extreme or vivid.

Posted 2024-09-23