Skinwalker Ranch

Hunt for the Skinwalker Ranch, a book by Colm A. Kelleher,PH., and George Knapp, journalist—This book was given to me by a very good friend of mine for my birthday a few years ago. Of course she knew I’d gobble a book right up about unusual and strange phenomena occurring on a cattle ranch in Uintah County during the 90’s. I’m a natural born hunter, explorer, and adventurer… if the unexplained is out there, and not too dangerous or frightening for a housewife and mother of six, I’m game to seek it out.                               

Naturally a ranch in Utah where I could actually drive to in person and witness any number of spooky inexplicable happenings became irresistible. Cattle mutilations, giant wolf creatures, Sasquatch, inner-dimensional beings, alien encounters, UFO’s, dinosaurs and footprints, sightings of strange creatures, odd blinking lights and orbs, floating cigar-shaped boxes, bizarre energy readings, or even a Skinwalker, an evil witch or medicine man that can assume the forms of animals …all this strikes fear into the average person…especially me. Why not go find that scary place and see for myself? Rumor had it that plenty of weird, spine tingling, hair-raising scary was available? Hah! I could handle it.

After reading the book, I did a bit of research on my own, and then approached my husband.  I asked if he’d like to take a nice Saturday afternoon drive. A quiet peaceful little romp to the Skinwalker Ranch would be such a fun afternoon for the two of us, I explained. And I knew right how to get him there. Of course I did happen to read that security was everywhere on the ranch, and that no one, not even aliens or giant wolves were supposed to trespass.

We drove up to the gate that was pictured in the book on a late Saturday afternoon. The exact gate---as there was the KEEP OUT sign posted boldly. Everything had fallen into place perfectly thus far. “So what do we do now?” my husband asked.

Wolves howl, right? So I climbed out of the car and howled…again and again…I howled at the ranch, the cliffs, the trees, the rocks, and anything else listening. My husband, ever a skeptic, smiled and began taking pictures. I laughed between howls. I even pulled out a rabbit whistle I’d bought at Cabela’s the day before and blew on it. My husband grabbed it from me, showed me how to use it, and handed it back. I blew it correctly after that. Combined with our location, being careful to NOT go beyond the gate, the squealing rabbit sounds made my skin crawl after a while. I stopped and pulled the binoculars out. It felt slightly eerie out there but nothing terrified me beyond belief. Of course you never know...an otherworldly creature could have been hiding in the bushes and trees, and I simply missed it.      

Security cameras or not, after finding a more private spot to use the bathroom, I got busy hunting for footprints, strange creatures, a BIG BAD wolf, anything out of the ordinary. I found some interesting footprints and saw something, don’t know what, moving against the cliffs in the distance. More photographs were taken. We never ventured beyond the gate, but I can’t help wondering if the security cameras got an eyeful when I found a bathroom. If so…a lot of people, probably men, are still laughing. Sick…but true. A pity the new owner of the ranch didn’t think to provide a portable outhouse for the occasional interloper.  

We stayed out there, me making as much noise as possible, for a couple of hours. That’s when the incredible idea hit me our spying could be much spookier if we came back at night. So we left and went hiking to look for dead mutilated cow bones. In the book about the ranch it said there were times their cows were found dead, their bones broken, as if they’d been dropped from a distance and hit the ground hard.  Scary scary stuff! We found the bones of an animal that did look cowish (even without the hair) and took pictures. Look at the crack in the pelvis of this one.

I wanted to return to the ranch in heavy dark, a few hours after sunset. So after hiking we drove to a small town and found a Ute Indian pow-wow taking place at a local grade school. My husband asked if we could sit and watch. The Ute Indians generously allowed us to observe them; the men, women, and children were beautiful dancers and in full costume. I loved the feathers and moccasins. The beat of their drums entranced us.

Unable to help myself I thought of the Skinwalker…and inconspicuously checked the crowd, wondering if there was an evil medicine man watching me…and if he knew why we were there. The Ute Indians take Skinwalkers very serious. So do other tribes. Though I don’t understand their cultures…the many strange occurrences on the Skinwalker Ranch seemed to lend credence to this particular Indian legend.

At half past ten that evening, we pulled up again to the gate that marked the beginning of the Skinwalker Ranch. This time I asked my husband to open the windows in the car. He did it, then lowered his seat and leaned back to take a nap. He wasn’t sleeping though. He snores when he sleeps, and he never began snoring or breathing like he does when he’s out. He was listening for anything unusual or strange…just like me.

Yeah! The atmosphere felt right this time. Something about the place felt completely out of the ordinary. The Twilight Zone theme song actually kept replaying in my head. Outer Limits took over after that. Heart pounding and knees shaking, I sat there listening to things go ‘bump in the night’ for over an hour before I’d had enough—things meaning…stuff I couldn’t explain away. We did see some strange orb-type lights moving above the ranch house in the distance. I shook the pretender up for that sighting. What were orbs doing above the trees and house? Neither one of us had a clue.

Can’t say what…but a voice inside of my head kept screaming for us to leave. Who knows why? Was it a guardian angel? Deep in my gut I couldn’t shake the feeling we were being watched by something not particularly friendly…and it wasn’t the security cameras. We’d been around those for hours. By the time my husband closed the windows and started the car…we were both shaking in our boots and couldn’t wait to get out of there. My husband drove the car from the ranch that night like aliens were chasing us. Perhaps…we were being followed, but that’s another story.