If there is one place that can be extra spooky when haunted or have unknown cryptids lurking around it is a forest. These places have a place in our primal past of being dangerous due to threats being able to lurk around and easily hide themselves in the various foliage, even worse is being in a forest during the night as it will likely be pitch black. Getting lost in a forest is also very scary as every which way can look quite similar if you aren’t experienced with the outdoors.
Forests can be naturally scary and spooky due to the above, but if the forest also has a reputation of being haunted or having cryptids reportedly lurking about in it and even having a history with UFO’s or aliens, then it becomes a whole other ordeal.
So today I decided to do a quick overview of five forests that have a paranormal, cryptid and/or UFO/Alien background a part of it.
1. Rendlesham Forest, UK
Rendlesham forest is found in Suffolk, England in the United Kingdom. The forest is perhaps best known by UFO enthusiasts for the Rendlesham Forest Incident, a UFO incident happening on 26th and 28th December of 1980 and was observed by personnel of the former RAF Woodbridge base located next to the forest.
It all began at 3am on the 26th December when a security patrol near the East gate of RAF Woodbridge claimed to see lights descending into the nearby Rendlesham Forest. Initially believing it to be a downed aircraft, they went into the forest to investigate and allegedly saw what they described as a glowing metallic object which had coloured lights. Upon attempting to move towards the object, it seemed to move through the trees and apparently animals on a nearby farm started going into a “frenzy”.
Sergeant Jim Penniston, one of the servicemen at the scene claimed that it was an encounter with a craft of unknown origin. Local police arrived at 4am but reported the only light they could see was from the Orford Ness lighthouse. At daybreak the servicemen returned to the scene in the forest to further investigate and ended up finding small impressions on the ground in a triangular pattern and also burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees. Local police were called again to see the impressions but they believed that it may have been made by an animal.
On the 28th December further investigation was done in the area including strange radiation spikes at the apparent landing sight and during this time an unidentified flashing light was claimed to be seen from the East almost in-line with a farmhouse. Later on it was claimed that three star-like objects were seen in the sky, two to the North and one to the South, 10 degrees above the horizon. It was claimed the brightest of these unknown lights hovered for 2-3 hours and seem to beam down a stream of light from time to time.
Explanations for the incident have included fireballs, downed spy satellites, the nearby lighthouse and just a downright hoax while some have claimed it was fabricated by the RAF as a distraction for something else.
Rendlesham Forest has also been known locally for Giant Spectral Black Dogs, black panthers (or Alien Big Cats) as well as a cryptid known as the Shug Monkey, a creature that looks like a mix between a dog and a monkey and of which comes from Cambridgeshire folklore, but seemingly has also been reported here.
2. The Big Thicket, Texas, USA
The Big Thicket is a heavily forested area in southeast Texas, USA, known for its vast biodiversity. The forest is home to at least to strange and not fully explainable things. One of them is ghost lights and the other is… wait for it… BIGFOOT! Yeah, Bigfoot seems to get around quite a bit in the US, he certainly isn’t as popularly seen in Texas but there are a few reports of him in Big Thicket.
First of all, though is the ghost lights, also called the Light of Saratoga or the Bragg Road Ghost Light, due to the area where it most commonly occurs and is sighted by locals and others who have come to investigate the unknown phenomena. Simply it is a light that appears and disappears at random. On the road there was once a train line that went over it before it was removed and turned into a dirt road. Local legend has it that the light is that of a former railroad worker who was decapitated on the job and so he now forever wonders the area with a lantern looking for his head.
Things such as swamp gas and car headlights have been put forward for possible explanations for the strange light.
Bigfoot on the other hand has been sighted in The Big Thicket on a number of occasions, many of the sightings being somewhat recent such as in 2006 and 2014. But sightings of the legendary apeman are nowhere near as common here as they are in the forests off California, Oregon and Washington.
3. El Yunque, Puerto Rico
El Yunque National Forest is a tropical rainforest located in northeastern Puerto Rico, an unincorporated US territory found in the Caribbean. This place appears to literally be a cryptid utopia with a vast number of unknown creatures having been sighted here by locals. There have even been UFO sightings as well.
One such strange creature is that of a humanoid creature that appears to be a cross between a bat and a monkey, described as around four-feet in height, monkey-like body covered in dark brown fur, wings similar to that of a bat as well as glowing red eyes on its face that also appeared to be bat-like in appearance. Definitely something that sounds horrifying to come across in the middle of a forest.
On top of the above creature have also been described other humanoid cryptids lurking in the forest of El Yunque, including ape-like bigfoot-type creatures and even big bipedal lizards. As well as that the well-known Chupacabra, a creature said to suck the blood out of livestock, is also reported to lurk about in this forest to top everything off.
So, what’s going on in El Yunque? Far too much by the sounds of it.
4. Cannock Chase, UK
Back to the UK now we head into Cannock Chase, an area of mixed countryside and woodland and also which has been known for paranormal activity. The area is said not only to play host to UFOs and ghosts but even werewolves. It is known by paranormal enthusiasts as one of the UK’s most mysterious places.
Local residents have claimed sightings of werewolf-like creatures stalking about in the Cannock Chase woodlands. Witnesses have claimed that the creature, seen near to a German War Memorial located in Cannock Chase, has sprung up on to its hind-legs and ran off into the woodland when spotted. It has often been mistaken for a large dog and the number of times it has reared on to its hind legs and made a run for it is numerous, so seemingly whatever this thing is, it’s more scared of us than we are of it.
On ghosts in the area it is reported that seeing a lady in grey is a possibility.
5. Trempealeau Mountain, Wisconsin, USA
Finally, we reach Trempealeau Mountain, located in western Trempealeau County in the US state of Wisconsin near to the border with the US state of Minnesota. It is a mostly wooded and forest mountain.
The area has been known for sightings of giant birds… which could possibly be the legendary Thunderbirds from Native American legend. A number of areas in the US, typically that are isolated and have a low population of people around, have reported sightings of giant birds that have been compared to that of the legendary Thunderbird, but of what they are actually are, if anything, isn’t know. And this mountain appears to be another hotspot for peopl who might want a chance at seeing one of these giant birds.
Make sure not to get carried off!
So, there you have it, a quick and fairly snappy overview of five forested areas which have been documented to have some unusual activity going down, at least from time to time.
Thank you for reading this post, if you have any queries please Email me, you can find my Email in the Contacts & Community section. Please also follow The Weekly Rambler on Twitter and Facebook which you can access through the buttons at the bottom of this website. You can also use the social media buttons under each blogpost to share with your family, friends and associates. You can also subscribe to Email notifications at the right-side of this website to know whenever a new post goes up (you can easily unsubscribe from this at any time through a button in each Email notification), or alternatively you can use an RSS Feed Reader. Please also join my FB Group The Weekly Ramblers Readers Group where readers can more easily talk with each other and also with me whenever I am on, you can also find it in Community.