[imagesource:facebook/Shannon Parker]

It must be a lot of work for a giant hairy creature to remain elusive in this day and age.

Bigfoot must have been feeling a little over it all on Sunday, October 8, as he was spotted romping around the mountain by a couple on a train passing by.

Shannon Parker and her husband, Stetson, of Wyoming, were riding on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado, hoping to spot some elk, when they made their unusual sighting.

Shannon’s Facebook post about the dubious creature has gone viral and created excitement among people who are fascinated and sceptical by Bigfoot.

“It was at least six, seven feet or taller,” Shannon told The New York Post. “It matched the sage in the mountains so much that he’s, like, camouflaged when crouching down.”

“We’re trying to think to ourselves, ‘Is it someone in a costume? What could it be?’” she told the Herald.

USA Today reports that it’s not the first time that an alleged sasquatch has been sighted in those mountains, which are located in the San Juan National Forest. Four Bigfoot sightings have been reported since 1989 in San Juan County, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organisation.

Some sceptics reckon that the Sasquatch Expedition Campers, an RV company based in Silverton, might somehow be involved with the sighting. However, the company issued a statement on Facebook denying its involvement, albeit with hints that they actually could have been a part of the funny business:

That hard-to-buy denial must be good for business. To further capitalise on the publicity, the company promptly posted a promotion for new social media followers to be entered into a drawing to win free T-shirts. Nice one.

Even if the camper company wasn’t behind the hoax, some sceptics suspect someone else definitely was.

Primatologist Mireya Mayor, a researcher on the Travel Channel’s docuseries “Expedition Bigfoot,” took to Instagram to express her skepticism of the sighting’s validity.

“What’s kind of suspect is yes, this is a remote area, however, there are scheduled trains that come through here,” Mayor said in the video. “Anyone who wanted to pull off a hoax, which is of course unfortunate, would know that there would be a train full of passengers very excited about the sighting of something unusual, something that looks like an elusive creature trying to blend in with the environment.”

Cleveland.com noted that DeAnne Gallegos, executive director of Visit Silverton, told the Herald that a man reportedly involved with a film production crew was at the Visitor Center last week and asked if there had been any recent bigfoot sightings in the area.

“And then all of a sudden there’s a video of a bigfoot and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s just them creating their own content,’” Gallegos said. She tells the Herald that Silverton residents are skeptical.

“All of us are just like, ‘OK, who did it? Who’s wearing the costume?’” Gallegos said. “Cause locals have done that before.”

But what remains for most of us a creature of myth is now an undeniable reality to the Parkers.

[source:usatoday]