Sand Squatch: The Desert Bigfoot of the American Southwest

So I was scrolling through YouTube the other night, looking for something interesting to dig into, and I stumbled across a podcast episode from the channel Field Notes from the Unknown that completely pulled me in. The hosts, Casey and McKenzie, were diving deep into something I had honestly never thought much about before: desert-dwelling Bigfoot. They even coined a nickname for it — the Sand Squatch — and the whole episode had me rethinking everything I assumed about where Sasquatch could thrive. The bulk of the episode focuses on a region in Arizona called the Mogollon Rim, which stretches about 200 miles along the eastern edge of the state, marking the boundary of the Colorado Plateau. If you've never heard of it, the Mogollon Rim is this wild, rugged landscape of mountains, high desert, deep canyons, and riverbeds. And despite being technically a desert environment, it's bursting with biodiversity — elk, black bear, cougars, bighorn sheep, beavers, over 20 species of bat, thousands of insects and reptiles, and more than 3,000 plant species. So when the hosts pointed out that this kind of ecosystem could absolutely support a large, elusive primate, it made a lot of sense. The creature they're focused on is called the Mogollon Monster, sometimes referred to as the "Moyan Monster" in the episode. The descriptions are pretty intense: 7 to 10 feet tall, long black or reddish-brown fur, large glowing red eyes, and a pungent body odor. Footprints measuring 22 inches from toe to heel have been reported in the area, which is genuinely massive. Witnesses also claim the creature mimics the sounds of other animals like coyotes, but sometimes lets out whoops and screams that sound distinctly ape-like. The hosts speculated this mimicry could be a hunting strategy — luring prey in — or just natural primate vocalization behavior. Here's where things get really wild, though. The Mogollon Monster has a reputation for decapitating deer. Yeah, you read that right. Hunters in the region have reportedly found deer carcasses with their necks twisted off, almost like a cork screw. The hosts connected this to a broader theme in Sasquatch encounter stories — particularly those featured on Sasquatch Chronicles — where witnesses describe Bigfoot catching live deer, breaking their legs, and pulling the head off to eat. It's brutal, and it definitely earned the creature a "vampiric" label during the episode. The oldest written account of the Mogollon Monster dates all the way back to 1903, published in the Arizona Republican by I.W. Stevens. Stevens described a white Bigfoot with a beard down to its knees, witnessed drinking the blood of a slain cougar before chasing him out of the area. A white Bigfoot drinking blood — that's the kind of detail that sticks with you. There's also a more modern account from Don Davis, who said he encountered the creature during a Boy Scout trip near Payson, Arizona, sometime in the 1960s or 70s. Davis described the being as huge, with deep-set, expressionless eyes — "like a serial killer," as the hosts joked — and a square, box-like face. His chest, shoulders, and arms were massive, with upper arms easily over 6 inches in diameter. The face was mostly devoid of hair, but the sides of the face and body were covered in thick fur. The episode also briefly touches on New Mexico, which has 44 reports logged in the BFRO database. While that's sparser than some other regions, the hosts pointed out that the hot spots for Sasquatch sightings in New Mexico weren't fully covered in this particular episode, so there's likely more to explore there. Honestly, this whole episode opened my eyes to the idea that Bigfoot isn't just a creature of the deep Pacific Northwest forests. The idea that these beings could adapt to desert environments, following prey through mountain chains and across arid plateaus, feels completely plausible. And the vampiric, deer-decapitating behavior of the Mogollon Monster adds a whole new layer to the lore that I hadn't encountered before. If you're into regional Bigfoot variants, unusual encounter details, or just love a good deep dive into lesser-known Sasquatch hotspots, this episode is absolutely worth your time. The hosts have a fun, conversational chemistry that makes the whole thing feel like you're sitting around a campfire swapping stories. Check it out — and let me know what you think about the Sand Squatch theory.