NUFORC Sighting 48770

Occurred: 1978-11-17 15:00 Local
Reported: 2006-01-19 18:46 Pacific
Duration: 10 hrs
No of observers: 2

Location: Interstate 80/25, WY, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Emitted beams

I saw "heavenly apparitions" (for lack of a better expression) that lasted for approximately 10 hrs. At the time, I was nineteen years old. It was a clear cool day on 17 or 18 November, 1978 and I was hitchhiking east from Jackson WY to Denver CO on Interstate 80. Outside of Rock Springs WY, I got a ride with a twenty-something year old professional driver who was ferrying a U-Haul truck.

He asked me, "Where ya' goin'?" I answered, "To Denver".

He replied, "Sit back, we're headed all the way...that is if you don't mind going about 50 mph. That's all this truck'll do." That of course was fine with me. The ride was mostly uneventful. It was a cool sunny day and there seemed to be almost no wind. Sometime mid-afternoon I noticed a point of light blinking due east at about 30 degrees, but I didn't really give it much thought and put it out of my mind. I figured it was sunlight reflecting off of an aircraft or something. As we headed towards Cheyenne WY it was becoming dark. The light I had noticed hours before had become strangely luminescent compared to the clear moonlit night sky. Things started to get strange when we turned south to go to Denver. The light turned as we turned and remained in front of us.

The U-Haul driver became alarmed and pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. "What the heck is that? I said, "I don't know. I think I saw it blinking in front of us hours ago." He replied, "Yeah, I saw it too." Then he continued, "Here let me see." At this he blinked his headlights on and off as if he was trying to signal whatever it was we were looking at.

Suddenly, it appeared to get much closer (about the size of a quarter at arms reach). It seemed to have a cylindrical body with a cone on top, but I couldn't be sure as this was darkened by five luminous points on its perimeter. Each shot out what seemed to be rods of white light. I remember rolling down my window and I could faintly hear a high-pitched whirring sound. This all happened very fast and frightened the driver. He stepped on the gas. As we sped away, it seemed that we went under the apparition.

Excitedly he yelled, "Is that thing followin' us?" At first I said, "No." Then I rolled the window down all the way, leaned out of it and looked back as far as I could. I came back in, "Yeah, it's following us." At this time, I could see out of the corner of my eye it shoot back into the eastern sky and hover from where it had begun before we turned south. We watched it several minutes and just couldn't believe what we were witnessing. As we talked about it, I glanced to my right at the moonlit mountain landscape. I noticed three or four hazy translucent purple spheres in the distance. I couldn't tell how far, but they were about the size of a nickel at arms reach. They seemed to be floating slowly, effortlessly, almost bouncing. It seemed as though I could almost see the landscape through them. They each had a smaller amber light that seemed to rotate, somewhat quickly and irregularly, around them. We watched these for sometime also. Again, I glanced to the east and noticed two star-sized points of light moving from north to south. I also noticed another point of light of similar size, further south, that was stationary. For some reason I remember telling myself that when the two moving points of light were in line with the third stationary point of light they would all move together. Surely, just a moment later when they all came on line, they all proceeded 'together' and disappeared slowly into the southern horizon. As we entered the Denver city limits we left the purple spheres with their amber companions behind. Only, the original luminous point of light in the eastern sky remained.

The driver took me to a part of downtown with which I was familiar. So I wouldn't inconvenience him I asked to be dropped off. I walked about a mile to my brother's apartment and knocked on the door. When the door opened I looked up over my right shoulder and could still see the luminous entity/object flickering its shafts of light. It was about 1:00 A.M. so I went in and prepared to retire. I didn't mention anything to my brother or his roommates until the next morning. I can't say whether or not I experienced "missing time".

Since then I have been reluctant to refer to what I saw as UFO's or extra-terrestrial. I have maintained a cynical view of contemporary scientific academia which too often relegates itself to dogma. I have complete conviction that our science at its highest is completely incapable of defining the infinite and infinitesimal dimensions of time and space much less defining whether or not margarine causes heart disease. I continue to keep my faith in Christ and I have come to believe that our best understanding of what I saw can be found only in metaphor. Simply, "what was outside is inside".

I have had no such experiences since.

NUFORC Note:

Date of alleged event may be approximate, although the witness does not indicate that fact. PD

Posted 2006-02-14