Hunting Guide Saves Injured Sasquatch After Bison Attack Near Yellowstone
Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
A story dropped recently that I just had to dig into, and honestly, it gave me chills. A licensed hunting guide working the backcountry near Yellowstone reportedly came face-to-face with a Sasquatch in serious trouble, and what he did next is the kind of thing that stays with a person forever.
The video walks through the account of Colton Vance, a 41-year-old guide who's spent nearly two decades leading elk, deer, and black bear hunts across the forests and grasslands north of Yellowstone, right along the border where the national park meets federal forest land near Gardener, Montana. Colton knows that country like the back of his hand. He's spent years studying terrain, tracking herd movements, checking water sources, and watching weather patterns. He understands grizzly behavior in the fall, elk movement under hunting pressure, how black bears use creek bottoms, and most importantly for this story, he knows bison. Really knows them.
September is rut season for bison in that region, running from mid-July through the end of September. Testosterone is high, bulls are territorial, and they don't limit their aggression to other bulls. A person, horse, or anything that wanders too close can easily become the target of a charge. Colton had learned this the hard way years earlier when he had to physically drag an inexperienced client behind a fallen tree just seconds before a bull crashed through the spot where the man had been standing. He never forgot that lesson.
On this particular morning, Colton was out alone, scouting a route he planned to use with a group arriving the following weekend. Heavy fall rain had moved through the high country, and he wanted to check for washouts, fallen trees, and damaged crossings. He also wanted to gauge the large animal activity in the area. He left before sunrise, parked his pickup beneath a stand of lodgepole pines, and continued on foot with a light backpack, binoculars, a notebook, a water bottle, a compact first aid kit, and a rifle over his shoulder.
The morning was everything you'd expect from early September in the Montana high country. Cold air, dew on the tall grass, pale gold sunlight cutting through the pines at a low angle, the smell of cold soil and pine resin. He'd already spotted a small group of 8 to 10 bison grazing in an open meadow about half a mile away and had adjusted his route to keep clear of them. Standard practice for someone with his experience.
Around 9:00 a.m., he stopped beside a narrow wooden bridge crossing a dry creek bed to note some repairs that needed to be made. That's when he heard it. A deep, muffled bellow from the west, followed by the hard pounding of hooves striking earth. A bull bison in a violent fight, likely challenging another male over breeding rights. But beneath that bellow came something else. A second roar with a different pitch, longer shape, and more depth than anything Colton could match to the animals he knew. It was low enough that he felt part of it through his boots before he fully heard it through the trees.
The sounds continued for about 30 seconds. A heavy impact shook the ground. Brush cracked. Something large struck a tree or was driven against it. Colton admitted that professional responsibility was only part of what pulled him closer. Curiosity played a role too, a deeper curiosity than just wanting to see two bulls fight. The second voice didn't belong to anything in his experience, and he'd spent most of his adult life learning the sounds of that country.
He checked his rifle and moved toward the sound. What he found stopped him cold. A bull bison was crashing away through the timber, but the hillside in front of him had been shaken as if something carrying impossible weight had come down hard against the earth. Dirt, pine needles, and dry leaves burst into the air around the base of an old tree. When the dust settled, a Sasquatch nearly nine feet tall was sitting with his back against the trunk. One side of his body had been torn open, and blood had soaked deep into the golden brown hair along his ribs. He didn't try to run. He didn't bare his teeth. He looked straight at Colton and waited to see what would happen next.
Now, I've covered a lot of stories over the years, and this one hits differently. The Yellowstone region has long been considered prime Sasquatch territory, with its vast wilderness, dense forest cover, and abundant food sources. Researchers have logged countless reports from that area over the decades, and the northern edge near Gardener sits right in the kind of remote, hard-to-access country where these beings could easily remain undisturbed. The fact that this account comes from someone with nearly 20 years of professional wilderness experience, someone who knows the sounds and behaviors of every large animal in that region, adds a layer of credibility that's hard to dismiss.
What really gets me is the description of the Sasquatch's behavior. He didn't flee. He didn't show aggression. He just waited. That kind of calm assessment, that kind of trust, or at least that kind of judgment, speaks to an intelligence that a lot of skeptics refuse to acknowledge. And the fact that Colton, a man who carries a rifle for a living, chose to help rather than react with fear or aggression says something powerful about the kind of person he is.
The video goes into much more detail about what happened next, and I don't want to spoil the whole thing. But I will say this, the encounter reportedly changed Colton's life in ways he never expected. If you're someone who believes that even the most legendary beings may sometimes need human kindness, this story is going to stay with you.
Do yourself a favor and go watch the full video. It's worth every minute.