NUFORC Sighting 165566

Occurred: 2021-09-27 22:00 Local
Reported: 2021-11-26 13:09 Pacific
Duration:
No of observers: 1

Location: Blowing Rock, NC, USA
Location details: Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

I saw three lights in the sky that approached my car on the Parkway before I was turned around.

On the night of September 27, 2021 I was going on a night drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was just me in the car. I accessed the Parkway at Aho Gap, which is milepost 288, and drove south towards Linville. I left at 10:00 p.m. and was home by 10:40. I will acknowledge now that this was a normal time for me to be up and active. I work second shift at a hotel and am usually up until midnight or until 1 a.m.

I do not know at what specific point I saw the three red lights, I just remember looking straight ahead and seeing them. I remember I passed Cone Manor (milepost 294) and Julian Price Park (milepost 297) and saw the lights before the Linville Viaduct (milepost 304). The lights were large in diameter and had an aura around them that was the same color. I initially thought they were the lights of the radio tower of Black Mountain (around milepost 342.2), which can be seen on the side of a mountain far ahead. However, these lights were straight ahead of my car. I remember thinking, “That’s weird, I’ve never seen them straight in front of me before.” I was also not on the Parkway long enough to be anywhere near the radio tower lights. It would take me over an hour to reach them going 30-35 mph and I was only on the Parkway for roughly 40 minutes. That includes the return time. But I did not think much of it beyond that, until I went out again the next night with my sister.

Not much further ahead, the lights disappeared and then they were right outside my car. They appeared between the front passenger side window and the right side of my windshield, and I was above the road. It felt like I was driving above them (not directly above, but to the left, since I could see the lights through the front right windows of my car), and then I was turned around on the Parkway to head back in the direction of Aho Gap. It is difficult to describe this part. I wrote down everything that happened when I got home so I would not have to rely on memory. However, this event is hard to describe because when I was at an overlook that I did not pull into (Grandmother Overlook, milepost 307.4) I could not remember turning into it. Whenever I tried to remember, I just got flashes of driving over the red lights.

Since I was facing the direction home (north), I decided to return home. It felt later than it was, I could have sworn I got home after 11 p.m. and closer to midnight, but I texted my sister when I got home and I was home at the latest by 10:40 p.m. I thought it was my own decision to turn around at that point and head home, so I did. On the way back, I was not sure which way I was driving. I knew I turned out of Grandmother Overlook but I could not tell if I was driving towards home or away from it. I frequently drive the Parkway, even at night, and I always drive south since I am more familiar with that direction and I can easily recall how much farther until I can turn down Aho Road (via Aho Gap). The frequency of which I drive the Parkway is anywhere from two to four nights a week from June to October. Even when I reached Julian Price Park, I had to think and remind myself if it was always on the left side of the road when I return home (it is).

I felt calm during all of this on the night of the 27th. However, I saw faces in the trees that looked like the typical greys, but their faces were stretched. I thought my eyes were tired and I was making faces out of nothing, so I moved my eyes around and the faces were still there. I looked directly at one, since if it is difficult to make something out clearly from my peripheral vision and I look directly at it I will see it for what it is. But the faces were still there, they were not made out of the leaves in the trees, they were superimposed on the leaves. I was calm on the way home but felt like there was someone in my car. I do not know if that feeling is relevant to answering anything about what happened that night, or if it paints a bigger picture. I just wanted to get this somewhere where someone might know what to do with it, because I cannot get the experience out of my head. I have also attached images that I drew to better explain it and document it without relying on memory alone. The images were drawn on September 29th, since I did not think twice about what happened two days before, until I was on the Parkway with my sister on September 28th. It was not until that second night out that I realized it would have been impossible for me to have driven anywhere near the Black Mountain Radio Tower in 20 minutes. I drew the initial sight of the three lights, then I drew what it looked like when they were by my car, and then I drew what I saw on the way home. The last picture disappeared but I was able to redraw it; it is from memory but it is stuck in my head. Take it as you will, but all of the written events I wrote down on the 28th after I realized something was not adding up.







Posted 2021-12-19

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