this is the last post on page 5, thought it was pretty well written.
March 2005. I had quit my job and was starting a new one and got 1 week off in between. I used the time to go camping with my dad. We headed to the last part of Oregon we had never been to before, the southeast. Drove to Riley and headed south, got a couple of jack rabbits near christmas valley. We set up camp in the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.
We were the only ones in the campground, it was still early in the year and the snows had just melted, still plenty on the ground. The campground has a hot spring with a pool. We were both relaxing in the hot water after dark. It was clear blue skies that night and I was looking up at the stars. A F15 or other small get came roaring across the sky, really loud. As I started following it up in the sky a large round red light appeared directly in front of the jets path. The red light was so out of place and surprised me so much that I stood up in the water. As soon as the red light appeared in its path the jet made a sharp 90 degree turn. It almost looked like the jet sped up to get out of there faster, it was quickly out of view. Once the jet turned the red light disappeared. By the time my dad started asking what�s wrong it was all over, he never even noticed.
I sat back in the water trying to explain to myself what I just saw. I couldn�t explain it so I concocted a story to make myself feel better. It must have been a �Top Gun� type situation. The jet spotted an enemy fighter, fired a missile and hit the other plane which burst into a ball of fire. The pilot of the jet probably radioed in �splash one, im outta here,� then turned, hit the after burners and was gone. Yeah I know, pretty unlikely, but if that�s what happened it would explain what I saw. I�m ok with that. I slept well that night and didn�t think much more about what I had seen until later in our trip.
The next day we broke camp and headed for the Alvord Desert on the other side of Steens Mountain. We drove into Lakeview for gas and propane, briefly drove into California then headed further East. The road takes you into northern Nevada for about 30 miles and back into Oregon. We stopped in Fields, OR (population 6) for gas and burgers. I noticed inside a picture of a huge mountain lion. The date showed it had been killed locally in just the past few days. When the lady at the register saw me looking she quickly offered me a piece of the cat. Turns out her husband had shot the lion just last week. Got my first taste of smoked mountain lion. Fields was a, �interesting� place.
From Fields we headed north into the Alvord Desert. The pavement ended, no phone service, 100 miles from anywhere. The Alvord is a dry salt lake, elevation 4500 ft. On the West side of it rises Steens Mountain. Between the desert and the mountain we found another warm spring. We got in our shorts and found someone was already down there. He looked to be about 70 years old and had the darkest tan I�ve ever seen. It was obvious he spent a lot of time relaxing by that pool in the sun. The old man apparently didn�t get to talk to many people because he kept going on and on. Turns out he had been living alone on the edge of the desert for 10 years since his wife passed away. He told us all sorts of stories about the place. When I told him I planned to camp up the mountain somewhere that night he quickly told me that a lot of strange things happen up there and to stay away. Crazy old man I thought.
Ignoring the old-timers advice my Dad and I left the gravel road and headed up a dirt two track towards the peak of Steens. The road was very rough. We drove carefully for maybe 20 minutes and came to a flat spot that made the most beautiful camp site I have ever seen. From the vantage point we had the mountain directly behind us and the entire desert was visible as well as the next mountain range in the distance. It was an unusually warm day for being March and life couldn�t get better. We put up our tent and drove further up the dirt road to explore. To our great surprise we spotted a herd of bighorn sheep and were able to sneak up to within maybe 50 yards for pictures.
Back at camp it soon started to get dark. You could see for miles and the gravel road we had started on was still within view. It was so quiet that as a car passed down the road the tires on gravel could easily be heard even from so far away. As dark fell another car appeared on the gavel road and headed up the mountain on the same two track we had come on. After a few minutes the car stopped about half way between us and the desert and its lights went out. I figured they had probably stopped to camp there just as we had.
The stars came out, it was clear, no wind and silent. My dad and I were sitting in folding camp chairs around a small fire we had made. I was still looking down the mountain in the direction of the desert and the other car that came up when another very bright light appeared near the gravel road. I thought it was another car driving down the road and that I was looking at headlights. The lights had that blue color like the HID lights on newer cars. What stuck out was that it wasn�t a pair of headlights, it was just one light. The light was so bright that it quickly caught my father�s attention as well. At first I thought it must be a motorcycle as it had just the one headlight, or maybe a car with a burnt out bulb.
The light began to head up the mountain apparently on the same road we were on but something was wrong. It had taken us at least 20 minutes to drive up that dirt two track as we weren�t able to go more than 5 miles an hour. Whatever this was it was coming fast. My thoughts went back to the red light I had seen in the sky earlier in the trip. No way a car or bike can go that fast on that trail, and there was still no noise. Okay I thought, this has got to be a helicopter flying up the mountain and they have the spotlight on. �But how can it be a helicopter,� I thought to myself, when it made no noise? Earlier I was able to easily hear a car that was miles away. I knew that helicopters were loud. Whatever this was, it was coming fast and silent. It took maybe 10 seconds for the light to make it halfway up the mountain. I would estimate its speed as 100, maybe 150 miles per hour.
It was coming directly towards us. My dad broke the silence with, �It saw our fire, and its coming in right on top of us, get rid of the fire!� As it got closer we both stood up. I realized that it wasn�t any sort of wheeled vehicle because it was now above us, in the air, directly over head. We both stood still, speechless, looking straight up at this blinding blue light. What had first looked like a headlight now filled the sky above us. Then it disappeared.
Like a light switch being turned off it disappeared. We were both stunned.
The rest of that night we tried to figure out what we had just seen. Inevitably the topic turned to aliens. My dad has a background in ministry and I asked him what the Bible says about aliens. He just said that it doesn�t, one way or another, makes no mention of the subject. There could be or there couldn�t be. Before the conversation got to weird we both decided it was time for bed.
It had been clear and calm but as we got our sleeping bags ready a wind started to pick up and clouds rolled in, blocking out the stars. We were in a very exposed area at high elevation and there was nothing bigger than sage brush to break the wind. Only minutes later, as we got in the tent, it was howling outside. I got in my sleeping bag, the tent was rustling and shaking in the wind, making it even louder. With what I had seen earlier and all the racket from the wind I thought I wasn�t going to get a wink of sleep that night but somehow, just a couple of minutes later, I was fast asleep. Next I woke up, I could see an orange light outside the tent and my dad was screaming. I completely freaked out.
I had taken off my glasses before falling asleep and could hardly see a thing, but I could see a orange glow coming in through the tent wall. It was so loud that I could barely hear, but I made out my dad yelling, �The fire came on us!� After what I had seen earlier I didn�t know what to think. By the time I found my glasses and got out of bed my dad had rushed outside the tent and I could hear him struggling with something. I run to the tent door only to see him slapping one of our folding camp chairs that had fallen in the embers of our camp fire and started to burn.
I was so mad that he had frightened me so badly over a $5 camp chair. I yelled at him asking what he was doing, it was just a stupid chair, �Let it burn,� I yelled. When he realized how absurd it was to struggle with the chair he just kind of dropped and left it. He had actually burned the palm of his hand trying to put the fire out. It was obvious that he was just as creeped out as I was from our experience earlier. We both got back in our sleeping bags without another word. The wind outside was ragging, it was so loud I was sure I wouldn�t get another wink of sleep but somehow, couple minutes later, I was fast asleep.
Next I woke up something was in my mouth and I was being hit on the back of my head! I was in shear terror. I was in a mummy bag that I had cinched tight around my neck and head. The bag was on a folding cot. It took me a few seconds to realize that the wind had blown the tent down around me and the tent roof was over my face and sleeping bag. One of the broken tent poles was blowing in the wind and hitting me right in the back of the head. I got out of the cot and bag and worked my way toward my dad, who was already gathering his clothes under the far corner of the tent. We found the door and got out of the tent. It was like being in a hurricane outside.
We both got in the truck. I was shivering from fear and cold, I couldn�t hold still. The truck was shaking from the wind pushing against it and I set the e-brake for fear of the pickup rolling down the hill. It was freezing, I had left my bag and blanket in the tent and wasn�t about to go back for it. I just sat in the truck knowing it can�t be more than a couple of hours till day break and were outta there. I was just going to wait till morning. Somehow, I can�t explain it, I was sound asleep in minutes.
I woke up, startled by he silence. It was so quiet. I instinctively opened the door to the pickup and went outside. Without saying a word my dad followed. Outside it was calm and silent, all the stars were out, clear skies. I walked over to the tent and watched it, together with my dad, in amazement. It was standing upright. The last time we had seen it the wind had it plastered to the ground. We looked at each other but didn�t say a thing. We both got inside the tent and back in our sleeping bags. I fell asleep in what felt like seconds. The next I woke up the sun was shinning on my face, beautiful morning.
That was the weirdest night of my life. Everything that happened after I went to bed was just coincidence due to the weather system that rolled through that night but it sure scarred the hell outta me. The tent, upon further inspection that morning, had several broken polls but once the wind died down it must have just popped up on its own. The burnt camp chair was still in the fire ring where the wind had blown it over. We packed camp and left in a hurry. I had hopped so much that the other campers we saw drive up the mountain were still there, but they were gone. The light we saw must have passed directly over where they had stopped for the night. Not surprisingly, they packed up and left that morning even faster than we did.
That�s the story as completely and accurately as I can tell it. The red light I saw the first night, I don�t know what it was, but it was far enough away that it didn�t bother me to much. That huge light we saw the next night, I have no idea what it was. I dont believe in aliens and I refuse to consider that. Area 51 is not to far south of there in Nevada. My dad wouldn�t talk about that night for at least a year afterwards, he just kind of played it off. Since then he�s told me that he too keeps thinking about it and has no idea what it was or could have been. Nothing I can think of can explain what I saw. One thing I know for sure, that old man, who told us not to go up that mountain, that weird things happen up there, he may have been on to something.
I didn�t know at the time, but if you do a Google search for �Alvord Desert UFO,� all sorts of weird stories come up. I guess I�m not the first one something like that has happened too. I went back last year with my wife, parents and in-laws. We all had a great time, nothing exciting to report.
I still think about that night in March of 05 all the time, still wonder what was up there.
