Pocatello
Pocatello sits in southeastern Idaho's high desert country, where the Portneuf River cuts through sagebrush hills and scattered stands of cottonwood and juniper at roughly 4,500 feet elevation. The city lies at the edge of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, with the Bannock Range rising to the east and vast stretches of semi-arid wilderness extending in all directions. This area gained national cryptid attention when local high school students captured video footage of a large, bipedal figure walking into forested terrain near the city limits. The footage and the students' account of the encounter made it one of the more discussed pieces of modern Bigfoot evidence from the intermountain West.
Timeline
Bannock and Shoshone tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation traditionally reported encounters with large, hairy forest beings in the surrounding mountains
High school students record video of unidentified bipedal creature near Pocatello city limits
Finding Bigfoot team investigates the student footage and conducts field research in the area
Notable Sightings
- c. 2011· local high school students
Students filming in wooded area near city limits captured footage of a large, dark, bipedal figure walking upright through trees before disappearing into denser forest. The creature appeared large in stature and moved with a distinctive gait unlike any known local wildlife.
Multiple student witnesses provided consistent accounts, and the video footage was clear enough to warrant national media coverage and professional investigation. The students had no apparent motive to fabricate the encounter and seemed genuinely startled by what they recorded.
What the Shows Found
- Finding BigfootS03E02
Did: Team analyzed the student video frame-by-frame, interviewed the witnesses, and conducted night investigations in the forested areas around Pocatello where the footage was shot
Found: Found the student testimony compelling and the video difficult to dismiss, though no additional evidence was collected during their field work
What the Science Says
The high desert environment around Pocatello presents an interesting habitat question for Sasquatch researchers. While not the classic Pacific Northwest old-growth forest typically associated with sightings, the area offers adequate cover through riparian cottonwood corridors and scattered forest patches in the nearby Bannock Range. Black bears do inhabit the region and could potentially be misidentified at distance, though the students' video appears to show a creature with distinctly non-ursine locomotion and proportions.
Research on bipedal locomotion suggests that gait patterns visible in amateur footage can be quite revealing — bears moving upright maintain a distinctly different stride pattern than the long, fluid steps typically reported in Sasquatch encounters. The intermountain West has produced fewer high-profile sightings than coastal regions, but the sparse human population and vast wilderness corridors could easily conceal a small population of large primates moving between mountain ranges.
Lore & Fun Facts
The Pocatello video gained enough attention to be featured on national television programs beyond Finding Bigfoot
The Fort Hall Indian Reservation encompasses part of the traditional territory where Bannock and Shoshone tribes reported large, hairy forest beings
Pocatello sits along historic Native American trade routes that connected the Great Basin with the Columbia River system
The Portneuf River valley has been a wildlife corridor for thousands of years, potentially explaining how large animals might move undetected through the region
Planning a Visit
The Pocatello area offers mix of public and private land access. Much of the immediate investigation area is on city outskirts with permission required for private property access, while nearby Caribou-Targhee National Forest provides extensive public land for exploration.
Pocatello serves as the regional hub, with smaller communities like Inkom about 10 miles southeast.
Late spring through early fall offers the best weather conditions, as winter temperatures regularly drop well below freezing with significant snowfall.
Related Sites
Featured In1 episode
"Ripped From the Headlines"[6]
Finding Bigfoot · Nov 11, 2012
Historical data sourced from Wikipedia