NUFORC Sighting 39859

Occurred: 2004-10-16 04:00 Local
Reported: 2004-10-19 14:05 Pacific
Duration: 45 min.
No of observers: 3

Location: Coulee Dam area, WA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

un explainable lights moving irradically , changing color and spliting into two lights separated by at least 100 ft.

While Deer hunting, three men ages 63, 61, and 35 observed strange un explainable lights. We were hunting about 10 miles east of Grand Coulee Dam, Washington along lake Roosevelt. The terrain is sage brush, pockets of brush/aspen trees and rolling to sharp cliff hills and canyons.Our method of hunting is to leave the truck at 3:30 am and climb to near the top of a 1,000 ft. ridge and commence hunting at daybreak.

On 10/14/04 we were about half way up the ridge at about 4-4:30 am in the dark, we stopped for a breather, sat down an looked across the canyon at the steep ridge on the other side, this ridge has sheer drop offs of volcanic rock, has no roads and in most places it is to steep to walk. The outline of the ridge top was visable in the night sky. We then observed a light just below the ridge top and soon another light a mile or so futher up the canyon also just below the same ridge top. We commented to each other how in the heck did someone get up there its impossible! The lights were about the size and color of a small headlight, soon the lights started to move much the same as a butterfly, up, down, 90 degree turns, the movements covered about a 400 yard area back and forth up and down. They changed from a yellow headlight color to a greenish color and occasionaly a redish tone, the light farther up the canyon sometimes would split into two lights and then come back together into one.

We looked at them with our field glasses and it just made them look bigger but not different. We observed this for about 20 min. to a half hour, the light across the canyon went dim and then out, the light further up the canyon continued, going from one to two lights then it moved to the top of the ridge, turned very bright and larger and then went out. that was the last we saw of them. After daylight came we hunted till about noon and met up with our 35 year old hunting partner who hunted the upper end of the ridge we were on, after talking hunting for awhile, we mentioned did you see the lights on the far ridge, his comment was, what the h--- was that, as it turned out he observed the same thing we did except that due to his position he was not able to see the secound light at the head end of the canyon. As a note it should be mentioned that the lights did not give off a beam of any kind so as to shine on the ground, nor was there a beam of any kind going to them such as someone playing a joke with a laser or other device.

((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESS))

Dear Peter,

This is getting more complicated all the time and the sad part is I don't have the time, however I can't seem to leave this alone until I have all the facts straight, correct and no stones unturned so that I may properly retire this incident in the archives of my mind.

I will re-submit my original report or add this as a footnote, let me know which, and how to do it.

There were actually four of us in our hunting party, one hunter did not see what the other three of us saw so I considered him irrelevant to our sighting and omitted him in the report. The four hunter who was the last to leave his vehicle (10 m. behind) also had the longest distance to hike in the early darkness. He would be cutting across the ridge diagonally below where my partner and I had just come up from. He is also 35 years old and very physically fit. (two 35 year olds, a 61 and 63 year old). At the time us old-timers were taking a breather and noticed the strange lights across the canyon, I noticed and remarked to my partner " there is Ron's flashlight" it was only on for a moment, then a few minutes later I noticed out of the corner of my eye his flashlight again. He was just about where I thought he would be in the dark morning. My partner never looked over on either occasion and he has since told me he was so keen on the lights across the canyon that he didn't bother looking. Normally we do not use a flashlight but generally carry one in case its needed. I guess something stuck in my subconscious about the look of his flashlight appearance as it was just a very small area of bunch grass/sage brush that lit up on the ground, and I didn't see the flashlight bulb itself, it all seemed pretty normal at the time because his body was probably blocking the flashlight bulb itself, but as I thought about it days later,
I called him on the phone and I mentioned to him that I had seen his flashlight come on a couple of times that early morning. His answer to me was " I didn't have one with me that morning".

My only answer to this is that it was part of the strange light occurrence and the lights followed him up the ridge with enough distance behind him that he never saw them, he also stated that he never stopped and turned around as he had a long way to go before daylight. He is a very serious non joking sort of young man that I have known most of his life, he has a degree in construction management and runs many large construction projects. I guess the part that raises the hair on my back is that it put the "flashlight" about 200 yards from my partner and I.

I suppose you can now put me in with the crackpots, but I will always know what I saw
as well as two of my hunting friends.
61 year old (me) self employed owner of mfg. co. for 28 years
63 year old self employed custom home builder most of his adult life
35 year old new truck fleet salesman
35 year old construction project manager( fish hatcheries, bridges, highway projects)

Regards,

((name deleted))

p.s. Can you offer an explanation or theory of this occurrence.

((END))

((ADDENDUM #2))

Peter,

One very important fact, it is impossible for anyone else to have been on the ridge that we were hunting on. I will not bore you with the reasons why.

You may add to my original report and feel free to edit out non pertinent things as it is getting to lengthy, you can run by the edited version for my approval.

Thanks, ((name deleted))

((END #2))

Posted 2004-10-27