Author Denver Michaels

My latest book,  California (Lucid!) Dreaming: Water Dragons, Lemurians, Bigfoot and More  is now available for  preorder on Amazon . Full-time traveler Denver Michaels navigates torrential rains in Santa Barbara, the blazing sun in Blythe, mudslides along the Pacific Coast Highway, swollen creeks in Yosemite, knee-deep snow in Lake Tahoe and other obstacles while seeking out water monsters, giants, megaliths, Bigfoot and other mysteries in the Golden State. In the eighth installment of his popular Detours Into the Paranormal series, Michaels investigates the Winchester Mystery House, rumors of ancient nuclear war in Death Valley, sky gods over the Colorado Desert, Bigfoot sightings beneath the giant redwoods, thunderbird reports, lucid dreams, strange stone walls, the Lemurian civilization and much more. What will he uncover in his never-ending search for truth? Over 80 photographs chronicle this epic seven-month tour.

Is there a hidden population of kangaroos in the United States? Sounds crazy. But the answer is....maybe.  A while back, the now-defunct website Cryptozoology News ran a report from northeastern Tennessee ( http://cryptozoologynews.com/kangaro-like-creature-seen-in-tennessee/ ). A witness spotted a kangaroo-like creature crossing the road late at night. This is a description of the animal from the article: The female passenger in his cab asked upon passing the spot where the car had swerved if my driver had seen “it”. When he told her he had not, she described the creature as something about 2 feet tall, running at a high rate of speed across the road on only its hind legs, and had the overall body shape of a Kangaroo. She said the creature was running towards the woods. Tennessee is no stranger to kangaroo reports; in 1934, two police dogs were killed leading to a hunt for a kangaroo in Hamburg. In the 1960s, a couple of noteworthy kangaroo incidents occurred. A kangaroo escaped ...

In June 2021, my wife and I spent some time in the Dakotas while traveling the nation in our RV. While I was in the town of Medora, North Dakota, located on the border of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, I began thinking of the "Badlands Horror." I first learned of the Badlands Horror from a guy who contacted me through my website. He told me the story of a strange creature that went on a rampage killing livestock in the North Dakota badlands during the early 1930s. He also sent the text from news articles mixed with his own commentary. I posted the article on my blog and asked that anyone with more information contact me, but no one did. I ended up putting the story out of my mind, but upon my arrival to Medora, I began thinking of the strange tale once again. The article that the fellow sent me is printed below. Again, if you have any information regarding it, I would love to hear from you. Theodore Roosevelt National Park. THE BADLANDS HORROR The Badlands, in No...

I spent early May 2022 at a campground in Ulster County, New York. The campground lies between the Shawangunk and Catskill mountains and the scenery is gorgeous. About thirty minutes away lies the town of Poughkeepsie which sits on the banks of the Hudson River. The town is home to Kipsy, the Hudson River Monster, and I had every intention of visiting. They say life comes at you fast. Life hit me like a freight train in New York. I had to rush my dog to the emergency veterinarian in Kingston. Sadly, he did not come back home with me. My ole buddy had an aggressive form of cancer, and a tumor caused his spleen to rupture. Understandably, I spent a good bit of my time in New York moping around. I just didn't feel like doing much. So, my trip to Kipsy's stomping grounds didn't happen. Rest in peace ole buddy. Well, anyway, I wanted this post to be about my trip to Poughkeepsie where I had hoped to learn a little more about Kipsy, the Hudson River Monster. But since I have not...

Given the sheer number of Sasquatch sightings throughout North America, it certainly seems plausible that an uncategorized large ape is roaming the forests. With that in mind—if a large ape exists in North America—could there be other primates as well? Could there be some sort of smaller monkey yet to be discovered? Believe it or not, and as strange as it sounds, this might be the case—devil monkeys. There are reports of strange, baboon-like primates that lurk in the forests of Appalachia and beyond . These creatures, nicknamed “devil monkeys,” appear from time to time leaving behind intrigue and mystery—and sometimes carnage. Devil Monkey sightings in the Appalachians can be traced back as far as the 1920s. Descriptions of the creatures vary; however, certain characteristics are commonly reported: dark hair with white hair on the neck and belly, a dog-like snout, pointed ears, and long claws and teeth. Some reports state that the creatures look like a wild dog from a distance. The si...

In the summer of 2021, I spent a week in Kalispell, Montana, a short drive from the crystal clear waters of Flathead Lake. I was excited to be here, as Flathead Lake holds a legendary water monster. According to eyewitnesses, the creature moves with vertical undulations and is seen at times frolicking in the lake. The Flathead Lake Monster is about 10–20 feet in length, although some witnesses have reported that it could reach a length of up to 40 feet. Observers often describe the monster as having several vertical humps visible above the water. It has smooth skin that is gray to black in color and large, dark eyes. When the Flathead Lake Monster swims, it is known for leaving a wake in the water up to 12 inches tall, similar to that of a motorboat.  Flathead Lake It would be difficult to find a lake surrounded by scenery that is more gorgeous and breathtaking than Flathead Lake. Moreover, the waters of the lake are enormous in size, and splendid in beauty. The lake is world reno...

On July 29, 1880, the Northern Pacific Farmer , a Wadena, Minnesota newspaper, ran a piece reported by the  New York Evening Star . The report recounted a harrowing encounter between fishermen and a "sea serpent." The event took place on Cayuga Lake, the longest of New York's Finger Lakes. (Yes, I know the creature should be called a lake monster rather than a sea serpent—the paper called it a sea serpent.) The Finger Lakes were formed by glaciers during the last ice age. In my research into the lake monster phenomenon, it is glacial lakes such as these that hold the bulk of lake monster sightings. Cayuga Lake reaches a depth of 435 feet and maintains an average depth of 182 feet—perfect for a large cryptid to dwell and remain undetected. The encounter occurred on a summer evening when a salesman from Broadway was fishing with a local farmer. The pair were trolling and two fish carriages were trailing behind the boat. Suddenly, a whirlpool emerged; one of the carriages di...

Many in the cryptozoology community credit Theodore Roosevelt with recording an early Bigfoot encounter in his 1893 book The Wilderness Hunter .  Teddy Roosevelt's Bigfoot story began with him saying that frontiersmen, as a rule, were not superstitious. They lived hard and austere lives and had “little imagination in things spiritual and supernatural.” That said, Roosevelt did hear a “goblin story” that impressed him. I have reprinted Teddy Roosevelt's Bigfoot story, taken from his book, below:

Books about Bigfoot are a dime a dozen. I certainly have read my share over the years and I have a stack in my "to read" pile. Some Bigfoot books are great, some are terrible, and then there are plenty of so-so books. Having read a couple that fall into the mediocre category recently, I decided to reread a classic. So, I downloaded an e-book version of Ivan Sanderson’s Abominable Snowmen, Legend Come to Life. While reading the other night, something Sanderson wrote grabbed my attention—the idea that Bigfoot creatures are more human than animal. ABSMs In his book, Sanderson lumped Bigfoot into an overarching category called Abominable Snowmen or ABSM for short. Everyone knows ABSMs are elusive. Sanderson hinted at why: It is simply that ABSMs are Hominids or, just as every benighted native has always asserted, human rather than animal, and thus are endowed in one degree or another with human attributes, and most notably their powers of survival, their adaptability, their to...

The Evening Herald , a newspaper from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, reported an encounter in which a lake monster  attacked a boat with four men inside in their June 22, 1893, issue. The incident occurred in Cedar Bass Lake outside of Knox, Indiana. The article is titled "Lake Monster Smashes Boat, Men Thrown Overboard" and is reprinted below:

I spent a weekend in Calvert County, Maryland recently. I have been there many times and find it to be a fascinating area. I am especially drawn to the Calvert Cliffs which hold vast deposits of fossilized fauna from the Miocene epoch (about 23–5 million years ago). Well, that and Chessie, the Chesapeake Bay Monster. But more on Chessie later. Let's talk fossils first.  Calvert Cliffs Fossils According to the website fossilguy.com: The fossil bearing Calvert Cliffs of Maryland is part of a large collection of fossiliferous exposures, called the Chesapeake Group. The Chesapeake Group encompasses exposures around the Chesapeake Bay, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. These exposures were created by sediment accumulation in the Salisbury Embayment, an area encompassing the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia coastal plains which is often covered by the ocean (Kent, 1994, p.111).  The Calvert Cliffs run for roughly 24 miles from near Chesapeake Beach to Drum Point on the western ...

From the earliest days of European exploration in South America, reports of strange, dinosaur-like creatures have emerged. One of the most intriguing reports of dinosaurs in South America comes from Bolivia. The following account was published in the  Scientific American  in 1883. The article is titled, “A Bolivian Saurian,” and some think it lends credence to the idea of living dinosaurs . The Brazilian Minister at La Paz, Bolivia, has remitted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Rio photographs of drawings of an extraordinary saurian killed on the Beni after receiving thirty-six balls. By order of the President of Bolivia the dried body, which had been preserved in Asuncion, was sent to La Paz. It is twelve meters long from snout to point of the tail, which latter is flattened. Besides the anterior head, it has, four meters behind, two small but completely formed heads rising from the back. All three have much resemblance to the head of a dog. The legs are short, and...

The audio version of my latest travel book just went live. My buddy  @uncleperry  narrated the book and did an excellent job, I know you'll be impressed with his work. You can find the audio version of Detours Into the Paranormal: Big Bend on Amazon by clicking here. Or go directly to Audible. If you want a free promo code, go to the contact area of this site and send me an email. This is a description of the book from Amazon: Did ancient astronauts visit Big Bend? Are the Chisos Mountains haunted by the spirits of a vanished and forgotten people? Is Bigfoot lurking in the shadows of the Davis Mountains? What are the Marfa Mystery Lights? Is a pterosaur hiding in a cave in Mexico? Is a six-foot-tall bipedal lizard roaming the Chihuahuan Desert? Were Zoroastrians—practitioners of an ancient Iranian religion—living in West Texas more than 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus set sail? In this installment of his Detours Into the Paranormal series, author Denver Michaels ...

A lady contacted me a few years ago and shared her skunk ape sighting with me. The encounter occurred in 2014 in a county park in Florida. The following is her account with some personal information edited out: "I'm rather nervous to do this. I never thought I'd tell anyone but one close friend... "...I often sought the solitude of the local wildlife park to unwind. My favorite walk was to a bivouac camp. It's only marked number three on their maps. "My son had camped there before and had warned me that wild boar frequented the area. He'd claimed to have found a wallow on his last trip out. When I reached the campsite I knew I made a bad mistake. I could smell the boar. It was horrendous. Then something moved in the palmettos ahead of me. And it stood up. And up. Now mind you this is like 1 pm. Not dark out. No rain clouds. "I am bad at estimating distance so bear with me. I was driving a Grand Marquis. This thing was about three car l...

There is a Bigfoot variant native to northwestern New Jersey  called "Big Red Eye"; Big Red Eye takes its name, obviously, from its red eyes—glowing red eyes. An eyewitness from 1991 had this to say about their Big Red Eye encounter: I knew it wasn’t a bear, it was too lean and upright; it was humanoid. It had been there the whole time, watching our approach. There was no noise, otherwise we would have heard something big crashing through all the underbrush. It was tall and shaggy with red eyes. The eyes were glowing red from reflected light, not glowing like LED lights. It just stood there motionless, arms hanging limply at its sides. It didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, it was just creepy. Then of course, we ran and did not look back. I don’t care what anybody says, I know what I saw. That is something you don’t forget, I definitely did not go back to that spot anytime soon. 1 Big Red Eye, as we know it today, seems to have gotten its start in the 1970s along New Je...