50 People Share Their Terrifying Unexplainable Experiences Out In The Woods

A number of years ago I was up in the northern end of BC in the islands out by Port Hardy. I set up camp right by the beach close to shore did the normal catch a fish cook it for dinner on the campfire thing. Perfect really.

A few hours pass and its getting dark I climb into the tent and fall asleep quickly. I get woken up by extremely heavy breathing on the beach from something BIG. In the area of my fire but the tide was in now so the waves would have covered it. My first thought is bear but on the islands where I was bear were not common at all to the point that there hasnt been one documented ever. This is blasting though my mind but than the urban talk of Bigfoot runs through my mind, at this point I am like there is no such thing as bigfoot so what the hell is it?!

I gain my courage and open my tent. I shine my flashlight around but I don't see anything so I get out of my tent. I am shining my light around when I hear it again. This huge breath but followed by a small splash. I focus my light on the beach when I see a massive Orca rolling around on the kelp right about where my fire was. This behemoth of a marine mammal scared the living [poop] out of it but it turned into being one of the most amazing events I ever witnessed. As I sat watching this massive animal rolling and playing yards from me I noticed more of them just off shore just bobbing there prob half asleep. Needless to say I did not sleep after that until they left.

...Was riding my horse down a trail. Heard a noise, tink tink, like glass. Looked down and saw a mouse in a glass bottle; it couldn't get out. Stopped, tipped the bottle and let the little one go...

..was riding my horse down a trail and heard a dog whine... real quiet... i whistled it started barking. Rode that way and found the dog; it was a german shorthair hunting dog who had tried to get out of a creek and had gotten his collar hung up in a root. Goodness knows how long he was there, he was skinny. On his last legs if you know what i mean. Had a collar with owner info engraved; called them and they were speechless. That dog had been missing for three weeks. He surely was in the water that long....

Edit: yes the dog survived. Life is tough. It was a hot summer, the dog was very physically fit and well taken care of (active competitive hunting dog).

Hiking alone in Washington. Late fall so it’s cold and few people on the trail.

I’m halfway up a steep, switchbacked climb and laying down to take a break when two guys come along descending the trail. I wave and they wave back. As they get close one of them suddenly says “oh, you’re alone” and then smiles at his friend. I get a little freaked out and I guess my dog sensed it because she stood up and stared sternly at them. She’s an 80lb black lab and full of love, but can look very intimidating.

The guys saw her and completely changed and quickly hurried on their way. I’m not sure if they were gonna do something creepy, but I picked a much less obvious campsite that night.

The screech of an owl can be haunting. But the thing that freaked me out the most was a snake on top of the ocean surface. I'd never seen a snake around the beach before and I had no idea they could sit on top of the water like that. It was sort of mesmerising, but I saw three of them that day on the beach and have never encountered snakes like that again. One was diving in a shallow pool hunting crabs and it just sat down on the bottom for longer than I thought would be possible. All in all, learned a lot about snakes that day.

I was elk hunting in Washington State a few years ago. As I was side-hilling a small canyon I experienced the old cliche of an "odd feeling" and being really uncomfortable. I headed up to the ridge-line and eventually met up with another hunter coming down the ridge very quickly. He waved me down and informed me that he had been watching me through binoculars and that I had walked directly under a tree with a mountain lion in it. Apparently I walked right under it and it simply watched me...guess he wasn't hungry. Not so creepy, but an unnerving feeling!

My boyfriend and I were camping in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (AB) this past summer. On the last night of our stay, as I'm falling asleep my bf tells me I've been pushing him off his side of the air mattress (I was trying to steal heat from him, as he's a human furnace) and asks me to give him room. Sounds good, we go to sleep.

I wake up to him shoving me and think I'm crowding him by accident, so I move over a little. He shoves me harder and I'm annoyed now because I already moved and I'm tired so I somewhat loudly say "I'm moving!" And he grabs be and shushes me. I know something is wrong and am awake right away.

He whispers very softly, "do you hear something?" And right away I hear the unmistakable exhaling huff of a bear right by my head. My heart is pounding because at this point I can hear it sniffing us and huffing (which is not good if you know grizzlies). My bf says we need to get to our truck and I agree, but from what I can hear, the bear is between our tent and truck. Luckily we have command start and our truck has a very aggressive start, so when my bf started the truck, I heard some crashing through the trees and we both ran to the truck.

We drove a lap around our campground to make sure the bear hadnt gone into anyone else's site, but didn't see it. We slept in the truck until it was light out and let the wildlife hotline in the area know before we left. We started second guessing ourselves because this all happened at about 1:30am, but when we were packing up the tent that next day we found coarse, brown hair all over the side of the tent where our heads were and on the grill of the truck. I've never been so terrified and full of adrenaline in my life.

I was solo camping the chatooga River. It was maybe midnight when I felt my hammock start to shake violently. I poke my head out and it’s a g*****n raccoon trying to steal my boots, This was my first time solo camping and I nearly s**t a hole through my pants. And it didn’t end there. Those little gremlins tormented me all night long. Constantly trying to steal my s**t. Moral to the story, Don’t feed the animals people.

Apparently when a beehive falls to the ground bees still stay in it. Never have I accidentally stepped on something and had more instant regret.

1) I'm sleeping in my hammock in the woods off the Appalachian Trail somewhere and am woken up by something walking very quietly under me. It was tall enough to lift my feet up as it went under me, which is terrifying to wake up to in the middle of the night. Probably a deer, but scared the c**p out of me.
2) Hiking in Africa with a group of about 8 friends: I felt something behind me so I turn around and find myself eye to eye with a giant alpha male baboon. I handed over my backpack, which is what he was reaching for, and he proceeded to carry it a few meters away, sit down, and stare at me while he unzipped the zippers and inspected every item. He ate what was food and left the rest. He then proceeded to stalk/chase us all the way out of the gorge, coming back twice for more stuff. We tried scaring him off and even pepper sprayed him in the face but he just shook it off. It was one of the most awesome and terrifying experiences of my life that I hope to never repeat.

We were camping at Long Beach, Washington for the kite festival, and decided to take a late night drive.

We found ourselves on some back roads in the woods, cruising along slowly with no music on and the windows down. No other cars but us, and suddenly everything just felt *wrong*. It was dark, but the light seemed different somehow. I remember the hair on the back of my neck standing up and just having the thought, "this isn't right, we shouldn't be here". I look over and my wife is wide eyed and clearly feeling the same way. I decided to pull over so I could turn around and head back the way we came.

Then we noticed deer were coming out of the woods and standing on the sides of the road, and they were just...staring at us. Realize the woods are oddly quiet, which just made things seem more strange. Look up and the branches were *full* of birds on both sides of the road. There must have been hundreds of them, all perched and alert.

My wife said, "we need to go". So we left. Eventually, once we had gone far enough, everything seemed normal again.

I'm a pretty big fan of the idea of multiple worlds/dimensions, and honestly wonder if we accidentally drove through a "thin spot" and briefly wound up somewhere we shouldn't have been.

I was out camping one night by myself and started hearing voices, I was playing music and it was around 2 in the morning my grandmas house was about 2 miles down the river and o thought it might have been my grandpa, so I turned off my music so I could tell back but I heard a dog and my grandma or Grandpa don't have dogs, then I heard someone say " the noise was this way" this genuinely freaked me out so I climbed one of the pine trees and sat up there about 5-7 minutes later I saw a flashlight in the distance and saw two people walking up, they were both men and there was a I believe a husky German hybrid with them they ransacked my camp and I swear they should've noticed me cuz they shined the lights around and pasted right over me, after they left I started to walk home cuz you know f**k that s**t, I heard 2 loud bangs (sounded like a rifle) and I booked it when I got home I stood in the porch for a second and saw their lights at the edge of the woods, I can assure you I will never camp alone again, it wasn't even hunting season so they shouldnt have even been out with a g*n and if they were it should have been at least a handg*n not a rifle, but I'm still not sure what kind of g*n it was, I hate dark forests now though and I got hella bad paranoia from this.

Years back... I was out solo backpacking in the Pecos Wilderness of Northern NM... camping about 6 hour's hike from the nearest pavement way up past Puerto Nambe.

I typically used an enclosed camping hammock... lightweight, bug proof, packs up small with a rain fly. No need to carry a pad or mat. Just need two trees. EZ and perfect for solo.

When you're in it, with the full fly on... you dont have any real visibility around you. The top was totally enclosed by bug screen... to get inside, you sort of climbed into a slit in the bottom, and then your weight pulled and held it closed. It worked well, but it was a convoluted process to get in and out of.

I picked a spot just at the edge of the treeline, so I could cook on the edge of the meadow with a view of Santa Fe Baldy. Ate dinner, cleaned up, bags in trees, looked at probably a billion stars, and then processed myself into the hammock for the night.

At some point, in the pitch black, I bolted awake... to crunching footsteps in the pine needles around me. It was the the kind of awake where you go from fast asleep to instantly hyper aware, but totally frozen.

I make absolutely no sound. I can't look outside, lighting a light would only illuminate the hammock like a lamp and leave me totally blind to the surroundings. The crunching continues, as if its circling the hammock. I'm not sure how long I held my breath.

The crunching is right along side me... I have zero clue what it is. Suddenly... something PUSHES against the side of my hammock... and in the hammock, that means it pushed against me. I could feel it's body heat. This isnt a tent wall, where you can cower away from it... if you lean, the hammock moves with you.

Whatever it was seemed to use its snout to nuzzle or root against the side of the hammock, like it was sniffing something out. I was still holding d**thly still, trying to come up with a plan to get away... which would involve trying to slash the opposite side with my knife.

The thing pushes again, and slides up the side of the hammock. I could feel the texture of its fur/hide/hair/whatever scraping against the nylon side.

I hear a sharp snort, and it crunches away. I'm not sure how long I stayed absolutely still, but at some point, the sun came up... and I ventured into the daylight.

I looked around the campsite, and could find no evidence of a visitor. The treeline edge was floored with pine needles, so there were no prints or tracks. None of my other gear was disturbed, the guy lines for the fly were all still tight, and I didn't see any marks on the side of the hammock. Couldn't even find a broken twig.

I'm not sure it even happened.

I've never slept in a hammock since.

I was out camping in the white mountains during winter time, when all of a sudden I start hearing branches cracking and snow crunching. I peer out of my tent to see a moose, maybe ten feet away, it's head down to the ground staring at me.

I slowly crawled back into my tent and it kept eating twigs. I was more worried it was going to accidentally step on me.

This was when I was about 17. I camping in the Australian outback with 3 other guys from high school. We each had our own tents.

Some time late at night I get woken up by a clinking sound. Something or someone has just plinked a tin can at our camping site (We took them with us when we left, but they were stacked next to the fire)

I sit up and listen...and whatever it is there's more than one of them. In fact, we appear to be surrounded....I can hear small noises coming from all over the campsite.

I'm a bit worried, but finally work up the nerve to stick my head out of the tent flap...

And discover it's a herd of miniature deer. None of them are taller than my hip, they look like a herd of Bambi. About twelve of them.

One of them sees me and stops for a moment and just looks at me...then they turn tail and run.

In the morning there were little hoof prints imprinted all over the camp. I guess they were after the "fruits in syrup" cans I brought with me.

My friend and I were searching for the perfect camping spot for about a year. After trying out quite a few we found one that seemed perfect. It was about a half hour walk from any trail or road and on top of a large cliff over a river. We got camp set up and decided to scout out around the area. It was getting dark so we started heading back, following the sound of the river to guide us when we spotted something... A shack.

We stop and look at each other, and decide we better investigate because it is pretty close to where we are going to be sleeping and this is weird. We get closer and realize it is basically a teepee made from scraps of aluminum and other sheet metal and a tarp. There is a inflated air mattress inside, and wine and whisky bottles EVERYWHERE. There was also p**n and a lot of extremely weird objects that someone normally would not have out camping. This place is a couple hours from any town and like I said, at least a half hour from any road or trail. There were no vehicles parked anywhere even remotely close because we would have seen them in our travels. We came to the conclusion that whoever had been here must have left, and they obviously did not want to be found.

Then, on our way out, I noticed the campfire was still smouldering.

We got the f**k out of there. Immediately packed up camp and blindly made our way back to the road. F**k that, ive watched enough horror movies to know that us teenage white boys would not be waking up that morning.

Not exactly hiker/hunter/etc but... I was walking back to my parents country house a bunch of years ago. It was this time of the year so it got dark pretty soon.

I was around 16 years old and coming back from meeting friends.1 km remaining of walk, on the other side of the road I saw a lantern, couldn't see any details of the person however. Seconds later, he/she aims at me with the light for what I felt so long, then it gets turned off and disappears in the darkness. I don't think I have ran faster in my life.

I was spending three days kayaking on the Coorong. I was having a great time and really enjoying the serenity and listening to the native birds and just appreciating nature. On the first day I heard what I could have sworn was a human not screaming, screeching I guess?

I didn't think much of it and kept paddling. I saw what looked like a body close to the shore and found a seal that had just been eviscerated. Honestly this thing was spread all over the beach. No footprints of any kind, just a seal in a hundred pieces. After the screeching and the seal I was a little creeped out but just continued my trip. Nothing of event really happened that night except that I kept hearing splashes from the water in front of me, yet when I checked there was nothing there.

The next day I went out again with the same plan. Just paddle until I got tired and then set up camp and go to bed. Unfortunately for me I got stuck on mud bog and had to spend a solid hour dragging my kayak across this thing to get to the other side of the water where I saw a deeper channel and a bunch of sand dunes.

After what feels like maybe 40 minutes of struggling with my kayak and this bog I saw a figure atop one of the sand dunes. Logically it was probably a random tourist like me or maybe a kangaroo, I stared at it for a second before getting back to trying to cross this bog. When I looked back it was gone. Weird...

Anyway, i set up camp for my last night, I was a bit creeped out by the seal and the noises and now this figure so I made sure I had my knife with me. I set up my tent a bit away from the water in an open area so I could see everything around me. As I was eating dinner I couldn't help but feel I was being watched, as it was a total fire ban in the area I didn't have a fire so I couldn't see much. I chalked it up to nerves and went for a short walk to explore the area I was in and wander down to the beach.

Now for some context the beach nearby is LOUD, you can't hear much other than crashing waves which makes what happened next especially eerie. I heard that f*****g screeching again and looked back to where I came from. Again a figure was standing in right by the path where I walked to the beach. F**k that I thought, I pulled by knife out and approached where I thought I saw this thing, there was just a week old fish that looked like it had been hung on the fence and forgotten.

As I walked back down the path I heard what sounded like a kangaroo or wallaby just lightly hopping behind me, but when I looked back there was nothing there. Honestly I just climbed into my tent and prayed to god there was nothing around. It's kind of anti climactic but nothing else really happened, I think I heard that screeching once more and then I didn't hear it again.

Apparently there are a few indigenous graveyards in the area, I'm not one for superstition but if I'm being honest this experience really spooked me.

This memory is over 20 years old, and super foggy because I was super little, but here goes. We used to camp at this same spot every year, until we moved. Anyway, this one summer I remember when we were first pitching our tent, the nearest campers came over to say hello and pass on some advice that had been spreading across the campground. Something about bears, and how everyone should haul their food up in the trees or something. I remember the guy offering my Dad some spare rope, if he needed any. All seemed fine and dandy. Mom was antsy, but Dad assured her a bear wouldn't come into a campground this busy.

On Night Two or Three, everyone was woken to a crash, and the sounds of a car alarm. I remember pressing my hand over my sister's mouth because I was afraid that if she cried the bear would come over. Or something silly like that. There was some distant shouting, and my Dad decided to investigate. So he grabbed the tiny little skillet and his equally dis-sized (but in the opposite proportions) flashlight, and exited the tent. I remember rolling over, because there was this little tear I'd discovered the last time it rained. There were a lot of flashlights and people over by the bathroom, where a car's lights were flashing.

It wasn't a bear that had been breaking into people's cars and stealing s**t all summer. It was a crazy homeless guy who'd been hiding out in the woods. They were actually pretty sure he was the same guy who'd tried to attack two teenage girls at one of the nearby hiking trails a few weeks prior, leading to it being closed for the time being.

I was hunting coyotes in Utah near dugway and my flashlight died. I was in an open field and wild horses got spooked while I was walking back to my truck. They were running all around and I was sure I was going to get trampled.

Was deep in a state park in North Carolina at a primitive campsite with my mom. We were setting up camp after hiking 15 miles in and it started getting dark. We had a fire going but needed more wood to keep it burning through the night so we were poking around the perimeter of the firelight picking up sticks. My mom started reaching for a long branch behind a log but something about it gave her pause. She pulled another stick from the bundle she’d already gathered and hit the one on the ground. It started writhing, coiled up and started rattling at her. We both jumped back and watched as a 7 ft rattlesnake slithered away into the woods. We decided we had enough wood.