Colorado Investigator Recounts Lifelong Bigfoot Research and Close Encounter

A fascinating interview recently surfaced on YouTube that's got the research community buzzing. The video, posted by the channel CREEK DEVIL, features a deep-dive conversation with a longtime Sasquatch investigator named Ken, who shares decades of personal encounters and family history that ties directly into the world of cryptid research. Ken, a 57-year-old researcher now based in Estes Park, Colorado, comes from quite the adventurous lineage. He mentions a distant relative named Floyd Collins, the famous spelunker who tragically died in the Mammoth Cave system back in 1925. On his mother's side, Ken has Cherokee heritage and is distantly related to Norma Smallwood, who was crowned Miss America in 1926. It's this rich family background, steeped in outdoor exploration and Native American traditions, that Ken credits with shaping his lifelong curiosity about the unknown. The conversation gets really interesting when Ken talks about his mother's own encounter in the Ozarks when he was just a child. She described something that came up to their car and struck the front of it with its hand before moving on down the hill. As a kid, Ken figured it was just monsters from his imagination, but that story stuck with him. Like many researchers of his generation, Ken's fascination was further fueled by pop culture milestones. He mentions watching Planet of the Apes in 1968 and, more significantly for our community, The Legend of Boggy Creek in 1972. That film, which documented the famous Fouke Monster sightings in Arkansas, clearly left a mark on the young farm boy from Seward, Nebraska. What makes Ken's story particularly compelling is the sheer scope of his fieldwork. Starting in his 20s around Colorado Springs, he explored areas like Phantom Canyon, Gold Camp Road, and Cheyenne Canyon with nothing more than an Instamatic pocket camera. He spent three years researching around Divide, Colorado, particularly at the Florissant Fossil Beds, where he reports finding footprints, experiencing rocks being thrown at him, and hearing vocalizations. He had to keep his activities quiet because, as he puts it, the Parks Department would shut him down if they knew what he was up to. The video also includes some gripping witness testimony describing close encounters with these creatures. One account describes a being roughly 8 feet tall and around 800 pounds, with hair covering its entire body except the face, a wide pronounced nose, and an ominous odor. The witness recounts being just 10 to 15 feet away from the creature before deciding to run. Another chilling detail involves a second creature appearing from behind brush while the first one showed no reaction to being shot near. Ken eventually brought his research to Estes Park around 2009, where he now works at a Safeway and has built up an impressive wall of photos and documentation that has gained local recognition. He even mentions that the current mayor of Estes Park, who trains dogs and spends time in the woods, has become a friend and supporter of his work. The interview touches on the methodology of Sasquatch research, breaking it down into phases: identifying opportunities, conducting investigations, profiling research areas, creating intercept plans, and finally the intercept itself. It's a structured approach that Ken has refined over decades of solo fieldwork. For anyone interested in long-term field research, family connections to the subject matter, or just a good story about a dedicated investigator who's been doing this work since the 1970s, this video is absolutely worth checking out. Ken's perspective as a self-described "loner Bigfoot guy" who spent years doing things nobody else was doing offers a unique window into the world of grassroots Sasquatch research in the Rocky Mountains.