Search for these mysterious cryptids while hiking or paddling the US (2024)

If you visit the Northwest, you’ll probably seeJake the Alligator Manbumper stickers. I admit I have one on my SUV. This mummified half man/half alligator is displayed at Marsh’s Free Museum on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington state. While most people dismiss Jake as a one-off taxidermy hoax, I found myself contemplating the existence of more alligator men while Ipaddleboardedacross the peninsula’s otherwise serene Loomis Lake State Park. Jake’s annual birthday party has been known to include car shows, burlesque performances, and a “Bride of Jake” competition.

The first alleged sighting of this bipedal, moth-like creature with glowing red eyes occurred near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966.Mothmanis described as being about six feet tall and able to glide at speeds of up to 100 mph, making it easy for him to menace folks in cars. Worse, he’s been accused of stealing dogs. You can visit theMothman Museumto learn about all the sightings. Come for the museum’sannual Mothman festival, or just gawk at the 12-foot-tall Mothman statue (who knew a cryptid could have such ripped abs?!) created by the late Point Pleasant artist Bob Roach.

Legend says the Lizard Man has plaguedBishopville, South Carolina’s swamps since 1988. He’s described as having scaly green skin, blazing red eyes, and three fingers with long black claws. Oh, and he’s seven feet tall. Fortunately, he’s more interested in vandalizing cars than hurting people. He also leaves enormous three-toed footprints in the swampy mud. Like all self-respecting reptiles, the cold-bloodedLizard Manis more active in summer than winter.

Not only do rattlesnakes and black widows call New Jersey’s Pine Barrens wilderness home, but so does the infamous Jersey Devil. Since the 1700s, eyewitness descriptions of the creature have been mixed, with its height somewhere between three and six feet tall. It may be kangaroo-esque, with short front legs and long, hooved hind legs, batlike wings, horns, glowing red eyes, and either a horse’s head or a dog’s face. Everyone agrees this is one ugly and fearsome critter. It comes out at night to screech, terrorize folks, and raid chicken coops.

A lot of things could hide in Idaho’sLake Pend Oreille, which is more than 40 miles long and roughly 1,100 feet deep. Boaters and other lake lovers have reported seeing a prehistoric-looking thing in the water since the 1940s. This lake monster, nicknamed The Paddler, is reportedly large, gray, and can move swiftly through the water. Is the Paddler a monster left over from the Jurassic period? Or is it new submarine technology developed by the Navy’s Acoustic Research Department, which has facilities on the lake?

In eastern Oregon, Native Americans still tell the tragic story of a marriage that was supposed to unite the Nez Perce and Blackfeet tribes. Instead, the newlyweds were gobbled down by a sea serpent as they rowed acrossWallowa Lake. In 1885, a prospector reported seeing a creature with a large, flat head, about 10 feet long, as large around as a man’s body, and bellowing like a cow. The serpent has been immortalized in a song by Sufjan Stevens called “Wallowa Lake Monster.”

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And finally, we get to cryptid royalty, Bigfoot. This foul-smelling biped is most often sighted in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. Salish people named this creaturese’sxac, or “wild men,” which most people now pronounce as Sasquatch.

Is Bigfoot an ape? The missing link? An extraterrestrial? Who knows? But people love the hairy guy (or gal, as in the famous 1967 footage caught by Roger Patterson and Robert “Bob” Gimlin in Bluff Creek, California). Bigfoot groupies have plenty of places to celebrate with like-minded cryptozoologists, like theNorth American Bigfoot Centerin Boring, Oregon, or the annualBigfoot Daysin Estes Park, Colorado.

Of course, Bigfoot doesn’t care about borders. Harrison River Valley in British Columbia, Canada, calls itself the Land of Sasquatch and knows how to party Bigfoot style. The Canadian town is opening a new and improvedSasquatch museum later this year. Visitors can come for the annual Sasquatch Daysin June, walk theSasquatch Trail, and hang out atSasquatch Provincial Park.