A 70-year-old retired state contractor says she saw a large, reddish-brown upright figure standing at the top of a roadside embankment in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and a freshly dislodged boulder on the highway below it may be the most intriguing part of the story.
Gael K. was driving south on Wind River Highway on the afternoon of May 8, 2026, roughly one to two miles south of Hemlock Road near the small community of Stabler in Skamania County, Washington. She was moving at about 50 miles per hour when she noticed debris cascading down the embankment and a large boulder resting at the road’s edge. Her instinct was to look up at the slope to see what had caused it.
What she saw stopped being easy to explain.
What She Saw
Standing motionless at the top of the embankment, against a backdrop of dense forest, was a large furry figure with reddish-brown coloring. It was upright, and its back appeared to be turned toward her as she drove past. The embankment itself was roughly 20 feet high with reddish-brown soil, and the treeline began almost immediately at the top. The sighting was brief because of her speed, but Gael told BFRO investigator Matthew Moneymaker that she was certain of what she saw. It was not a bear, not a human, and not an elk.
She estimates the figure was roughly human-sized, which led Moneymaker to suggest it may have been a juvenile. The fur color was a light brown with an orange tint, closer to what witnesses commonly describe as a Bigfoot coloring than the dark brown or black often associated with bears in the region. Gael was approximately 40 feet away at her closest point.
The Boulder and the Jogger
The boulder sitting at the road’s edge measured roughly 4 feet by 2 feet by Gael’s estimate. It was not a pebble, and it appeared to have just come down the slope. Small rocks and dust were still trailing down the embankment when she drove past, suggesting the slide had happened moments before her arrival.
Roughly 100 feet down the highway, a woman was jogging south along the road’s shoulder. She had red hair pulled into a ponytail and was wearing pink shorts. Her back was to Gael, and she appeared not to notice the rockslide at all, or at least did not react to it.
Moneymaker raised a question that gives the whole account an unsettling dimension: was the boulder pushed? He put the possibility directly to Gael that the figure may have dislodged the rock in response to the jogger passing by, either to get her attention, to warn her off, or simply by coming to the edge of the embankment for a better look and accidentally sending the rock tumbling down. Gael said it was entirely possible.
Whether the rock came down because something large was standing near the edge, or whether that presence came to investigate the sound of the rock itself, there is no clean answer. What is clear is that the timing was unusually close.
Who Reported This
Gael K. is not someone with a history of paranormal interest. She was born and raised in Washington, spent 21 years working for the State of Washington in the Department of Health’s Drinking Water Safety Enforcement Division, and has been driving through the Cascades for decades. She says she sees large wild animals including elk regularly and knows what they look like. She was not looking for Bigfoot, and her first instinct when she saw the boulder was purely practical. She looked up to understand a road hazard, and the explanation she found was not one she was expecting.
Moneymaker described her as an excellent and credible witness, and noted that the full details of the encounter were significantly more compelling than what she initially submitted to the BFRO database.
The Location
Wind River Highway runs through a corridor of Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southwest Washington’s Skamania County. The area has a documented history of sighting reports, and the terrain is exactly what experienced researchers describe as prime habitat: dense old-growth forest, significant elevation changes, low human traffic outside of recreational use, and easy access to creek drainages and ridgelines. The nearest towns are Carson and Stabler, both small communities with limited year-round foot traffic in the surrounding forest.
Skamania County also falls within the documented range of the Klickitat Ape Cat, a large feline cryptid with reports concentrated along this stretch of southwest Washington. Whether the two phenomena share any connection is unknown, but the region has a pattern of unexplained encounters that extends well beyond a single species.
Moneymaker noted in his investigation report that the boulder may still be resting at the roadside and could serve as a location marker for anyone willing to check the slope above it for tracks or disturbance.
What Skeptics Would Say
A brief daylight sighting from a moving vehicle at 50 miles per hour leaves real room for misidentification. The human brain is remarkably good at pattern recognition, and under the right conditions, a large animal partially obscured by shadows or trees can briefly register as something else. A black or cinnamon-phase bear standing on a hillside, especially if only glimpsed from the side or rear, could look convincingly upright. The reddish embankment soil may also have influenced her perception of the figure’s coloring.
None of that is a dismissal of what Gael reported. She is an experienced outdoorswoman who has spent a lifetime in this landscape. She is simply the first to acknowledge the conditions were not ideal for a long, careful observation.
What Remains
The jogger has not been identified or contacted. The boulder, if it is still on the roadside, could confirm the location. No tracks have been reported yet from the slope. What remains is the account of a credible, experienced witness who looked up at a hillside in the middle of a clear May afternoon, saw something standing upright in the trees, and is still trying to make sense of it.
Seen something unexplained in the Cascades or anywhere else? Send your report to Reports@ParaRational.com.
