Mystery of Bigfoot A Night with Sasquatch Secrets & Mescalero Apache Legends

Good morning, Americans. It's Friday. Hello, Bigfoot enthusiasts. Scott here from Squatch America. Hi, I'm Nikki. I'm chief cook, doggy mom, and... What am I? Patty wagon. In the patty wagon. No, not really, but... I have to say that or my Jewish wife will kill me. That's a mouthful. It is. So, actually, we're out here in the Lincoln National Forest, and we got to spend the night and do a little squatching with Nikki from Sasquatch Secrets. Hi. And we had fun. We actually had a town hall meeting yesterday with Mescalero Apache on the reservation, and that was a pretty cool day, actually. We had a lot of good reports coming at you soon. And then Nikki invited us out here in the woods to freeze for the night. It was cold. For sure. So, where are we at, Nikki? We are in the mountains of the Sacramento Mountains up near Sunspot Highway, I guess we could say. Somewhere off of there. And surrounded by beauty. I mean, it is completely and utterly green and lush, and it seemed like a perfect place to come and hang out and a place that I come to, you know, fairly recent. Maybe a year or so I've been coming up here for day trips mostly and exploring, you know, hitting one spot after another. And it was a nice little event. Yeah. To come out and hang around the fire and do a little walking and a lot of hard walking. There's a hill here that's amazingly steep. Yes. It doesn't look steep until you start walking it. Yeah, and another thing that's kind of hard is that I checked the elevation on my GPS when we got here and we're over 9,000 feet. So, the air's a little thin and the hills are a little steep so you do a little huffing and puffing. Yeah, it's totally different from being down in the 500s or even the 3,000 level is totally different. We're just going to go up to the top of the ridge and set up some cameras watching us. And film some YouTubes. I'm a special guest star on both of their channels. Okay. When was the last time you've been up there? Just now. Just now, she said. Oh, okay. I'm like, damn, you're really... I thought you meant way up there. Yeah, we went pretty much to the top. Oh my gosh, okay. Wish us luck. It's not that far. I mean, I can see it from here. Alright. Wait, wait, don't move. What happened? That was rolling under his foot. Oh, I got it. I felt it. Woo, that's light. Did you guys see any prints? Did you guys look at anything on the ground? No. We set up trail cameras. See how that dirt is right there? Yeah. There's literally a dirt trail going all the way up that you could follow down. Yeah. That could be, what, from running out? That could be. I don't know. These are really close. Yeah. I've seen a bunch of horses driving up here. Oh, really? Uh-huh. I have a foot of a horse problem. Oh, yeah. And that affects our deer population. Does it? Because horse eat everything. Uh-huh. But deer have a very picky... Right. You know... Diet. Diet, yes, exactly. And so the horses are eating up everything from our deer. So we're trying to get rid of the horses. But it's the truth, you know? So two questions about strategy. Walking and doing, like, a drive. Have you ever seen that work? No. I've heard of people doing it, but I've never seen it work. And then having somebody sit away from camp, kind of solitary, like they used to do on Finding Bigfoot. Oh, yeah. No? No. And then sitting in isolation, kind of away from the main camp. Yeah. If I sat up there on the ridge or something by myself, you guys made a bunch of noise. Yeah. I know a couple guys who do that, and they're pretty successful with it. Salt Fork, yeah, that's the place. Oh, okay. There's a guy who does that. Another one I do is, if you set up on a ridge like this, and then you've got a ridge line where you can see across the ridge, it's the best to just watch that other side of the hill. I've sit and watched bears. Yeah, I don't think you guys heard it. I didn't. Currently, my grandpa, Harry Wheeler, he's out on a fire in California. So they're all about the wilderness, right? I grew up on the reservation, so I've heard. And I respect it. Because, you know, you hear stories about people, they're like, I don't want to sound stupid, or I don't want people to laugh at me and think that this is not true. But for me personally, I'm very respectful of what people's realities are because I believe in the supernatural. And you have to also just be aware and respect it, right? Because what's out there, if you don't respect it, I feel like you can pick up the energy. Also, too, when you grow up on the reservation, your elders teach you, if you don't bother them, they won't bother you. So that's just a thing, too, that I've been taught about Bigfoot, is to just be very respectful of him. Good morning, everyone. My name's Adeline Wheeler. I'm from the Meskler Apache tribe. I'm a tribal member, born and raised, and I'm here with my fiance, Anthony. What's up? I'll let him do his little one. Anyway, yeah, so I'm from the Meskler Apache tribe, and I just so happened to see a flyer for an event for a Bigfoot, kind of like a little Bigfoot expo type thing, and I was interested because my family has a lot of history here on the reservation. Well, we're not currently at the reservation, but on the Meskler Apache reservation, I have a lot of family, and it runs deep. Both of my grandparents are hunting guides. Both of my parents have done a lot of forestry work as well, so I'm really familiar with the area. Just growing up, I've been able to explore, and I've been super blessed and grateful to have the area that I did growing up. With all of that, you learn a lot about traditions. You learn a lot about your culture, and I feel like I'm a very— I guess for 26, there's still a lot of room for me to grow, and I want to be open to learning more of my language and stuff like that. That's one thing that I have to be accountable for, and just stop, you know? But I feel like I know a handful, a good amount. What do I do with the tribe? I've been working with the tribe. I have about eight years with the tribe. I started from the bottom, and now I'm currently a deputy project manager, and we have been doing a lot of awesome projects for the tribe, stuff like that. So I have a lot of direct involvement with my tribal council, and I'm blessed to be able to be a part of the voice that advocates for my people whenever it comes to big projects that can make big changes in the community, things like that. But anyway, back to how I got here. I attended a Bigfoot—the event that Scott and Hannah had hosted, and it's called Squatch America. We were just curious, honestly. I was with the vibes of, like, we'll go to listen to Bigfoot stories and then go camping. So that was the vibe already, because we like to camp together and stuff like that. Anyway, I didn't really speak up at the event, just because I wanted to hear what everyone else said. I know Anthony had given his story, but I was just kind of more in an observant mood, a little bit more reserved. But I did share my story with Scott since I had the opportunity to go camp with him, which was an awesome experience. I was just telling him, when I was about 14 or 15— I was probably about 8th grade, middle school, or freshman, I'm not too sure. But my mom was—where we live, we lived in Peña. It's called Peña Mescalero. We were about two houses down from the dumpster. I remember this very vividly, because it was just like a daily thing that I did, like taking out the trash. Me and my siblings all had to take turns. Like I said, we have a big backyard. Our backyard was the literal forest. So you go in your backyard, and you can go on trails, stuff like that. And in the front, it's like a road that leads to the main highway and stuff like that. Aside the road, down to the dumpsters, there's a little trail. So that's the trail me and my siblings would take. But anyway, I was taking it one day, or one night. It was barely starting to get dark. So it was like a little bit—you know, whenever it starts to get dark, things turn bluish. That's how the vision is. I'm walking, just minding my own business, trying to take the trash out. All of a sudden, growing up in the area, to begin with, I'm very familiar with a lot of the wildlife sounds and stuff like that, and how to tell the difference between the different animals and what they sound like. So I've heard mountain lions. I've heard crazy red dogs. I've heard coyotes, horses, elk, deer, all of that. Anyway, I hear this really scary, creepy yell type. I was close to the trash can, so I start booking it to the trash can. I chuck the trash in the trash can, and I'm like, OK, I'm out of here. I ran back, and I remember talking to my mom about it. She was just talking about how I needed to just be careful and aware. She was glad that I was OK, but I was like, I'm never taking the trash again at this time of night, because it was a really freaky thing. Obviously, you're in a trash area, but I do remember the weather. I feel like the hotter the weather, the more you can smell. The smell will linger in the air, but it was actually kind of cool. I want to say it was almost the same time of year, between July and September, something like that. There was a really bad smell that came with it, but honestly, since I was by the trash cans, I was like, maybe it's just the trash. After I heard that, I was pretty sketched out. That stuck with me. Growing up, too, I've always heard stories from my family and my elders. Working with the tribe, I've been able to work with a lot of my people. That ranges from babies all the way up to people who are about to be 100. I've been blessed to experience and have conversations and be able to connect with people like that. I've heard a lot of eerie stuff. Not just Bigfoot, but everything in general. There's a lot of different stories that could be considered as horror. All of the Native American tribes have their own different tales and stuff like that. I feel like once you're in the environment, and you're surrounded by the culture and really connected, then you really start to respect and understand that maybe that isn't so much of a tale. You get the feeling and the vibe of what they might have been feeling. It's crazy, because that's exactly what I felt in that moment. My grandparents also have their own stories. Especially my grandma Nevelyn. Every time the subject of Bigfoot comes up, I talk about my grandma Nevelyn. Speaking of my grandma Nevelyn, her name is Nevelyn Yaza. She is a hunting guide on the Mesclaro Reservation. She is the only woman hunting guide at that. I also have to brag about my grandpa Leo La Paz. He's pretty awesome. As a woman, I've always been inspired by my grandma. She knows a lot. She's actually shared her Bigfoot story. I find it a little bit creepy, because my boss' mom is an elder. She has a story of the area that they live in. The only reason why I bring up my boss' mom is because she lives very close to my grandma. Just a minute down the street. They all live in the same vicinity. That place is called Gallarito Flats up in Mesclaro. It was so crazy, because yesterday, whenever I got to meet Nikki and Scott, we got to talking with Nikki. I was just showing her the area, because from where we were at, where the event was, you could literally see Gallarito Flats and the canyon going behind it. It's a little crazy. Also, we were having a conversation. Do you think Bigfoot is only in remote areas, or is he closer than what we think? Personally, I think he's closer than we think. My grandma also told me that she's seen Bigfoot lingering through her window with red eyes. Also, that was the same story that my boss' mom had. He was by their house, looking in their windows. What they say is that Bigfoot, on the Reds especially, and maybe other places, I don't know how this is, but he likes to prey on women, especially if they're alone or if they have kids. Honestly, as a single mom, before I had met my fiancé, I live on the reservation, and where I'm at, you hear all kinds of sounds too. It's basically forest. We're high elevation. It's been a little uneasy too, so I can get that vibe of getting freaked out. I believe my grandma, and I also believe Velma. Velma Lee is my boss' mom's name. That's her name, Velma Lee. I respect it, and I know I haven't really seen it with my own two eyes, but I respect the perspectives. Could you go into a little more detail about your grandma? I don't think you got into the actual story. Oh, my grandma Evelyn, yeah. Actually, she lives in Gallarito Flats. It's up on a little ridge in the main part of Mescalero. When you go up to my grandma's, she actually has a nice big yard. You can see the church. You can see all of main Mescalero. Up in there, there's a whole neighborhood. Right behind it is a canyon that goes up a bit ways towards north a bit. She said that she was home alone, and it was dark. I don't remember exactly what the time of the day was. It was dark. She was in bed already. She said that the Bigfoot, she had heard something moving around in the yard. All of a sudden, she looked. There's a little window by her bed that you can see out of. I can picture it in my head, but my grandma has rearranged her room a few times. The way that it is now. I believe before, whenever this story happened, it would be on her right side. She had got up, and she had seen Bigfoot looking through her window. She said it was really scary. She paused, and it got so dead silent that she could hear her own breathing. In your heartbeat, you hear that too. You're freaking out. She didn't really know what to do. She just got really scared. She said it just had really big, red, glowing eyes. It was looking straight at her. It was when I was around 11 years old. We were cruising down this road called Nogal Canyon Road, which is coming from Benton, New Mexico, going on to the Mescalero Apache Reservation. We were driving way back there. I was with my grandparents and the cousins. We were going to our spot we go tubing down the hill. I was just cruising, driving on the road, looking out at a field to the right. I was sitting in the right rear passenger seat, looking out to the field. On the left side, the land was higher on the left, but it wasn't a hill or nothing like that. It was just higher. We're driving. We're driving. It's all snow. A big rock comes from over above, in front of the car, before where the car is gone. It flies over. It hits about 40 yards from the car door, out in the snow over there. It rolls. Not too far, but it does a couple of rolls. The rock was at least this big, the size of a bowling ball. Definitely a huge rock. It's always stuck out to me as the main thing. I couldn't brush it off because a man couldn't have thrown it. It couldn't have caught momentum down a hill. It made it all the way and finally bounced over the road. That was always just like, whoa, what the heck is that? That's been my real closest encounter. I never really heard the sound, none of that. Didn't smell nothing. Highly questionable rock. I like that. The town hall went well. A little slow for participation, but once the ball got rolling, a lot of people... Which is pretty normal. Nobody wants to go first. Some amazing stories and encounters, including an ex-sheriff. Was he an ex? He was a Rez police officer. A Rez police officer who just said lots and lots of calls about Bigfoot. There was one place mentioned quite a bit during that conversation. I'm sure somebody, one of us is going to check that out. We've made some new friends. We did. It was a lot of fun. Alright, I'm headed back up the hill. There's Nikki. She's packed up. Kyle and the kids are gone. I'm going to hike up here and get my cameras. Up this hill. There are ways up here. We'll see if anybody messed with our golf balls last night. Here I go. I'm not going to torture you with the panting at 9,000 feet climbing a very steep hill. Catch up to you in a sec. This place is absolutely covered in tons of wild strawberries. Alright. Folks. Here we are. The golf balls are still in their little cradles undisturbed. So nothing checked them out last night. The Ronin thermal trail camera is still here. We'll see if we caught anything on it last night. I'll go ahead and get that taken down. Here's my regular trail camera. We just retrieved from way up there the on that tree way back there the Ronin trail camera. Now the Ronin camera is a thermal camera that only picks up heat that walks in front of it. It doesn't put out IR so they can't see that camera. So I put the regular camera down here on this tree so anything that can see the cameras will think they're safe from up there clear down to here because they won't step in front of this one. But if they will step in front of that one they can't see and think they're safe to get down here to this one. So hopefully that camera can catch a photo. We didn't have a lot of activity last night so I don't think we caught anything which is typical by the way. I'm going to throw this out there. 90% of Bigfooting you don't find anything so there's that. Thank you guys for supporting our channels and watching us and putting up with our antics. We're just out here trying to have a good time. You keep watching and we'll keep squatching and go out and find Bigfoot. See you guys! That damn Sasquatch!