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6 November 2023
East Arizona has a distinct history of being creepy. Reddit user u/Desert_Dreamer recently asked a question on /r/arizona: “People who live in East AZ, what kind of creepy/scary things have you seen/experienced at night?”
Reddit user niffaz4 shared a story about her almost encounter with a mountain lion:
“Mountain biking at night in the desert and flushed a mountain lion😳 spent the rest of the ride waiting to be taken down from behind. Of course, I was alone.”
User DamnYouVodka followed up this story with her own mountain biking creature encounter:
“I was mountain biking at night (also alone like the silly silly goose I am) and a pack of coyotes started gathering — I was inadvertently following one that was ahead of me and it was so scary! They also make super scary noises 😨”
Reddit user Mike_from_claims shared their story about camping by the Black River in the White Mountains:
“Growing up, my family used to camp by the Black River in the White Mountains and fly fish. Our campsite was way off the beaten path. My brother and I used to go for “forest walks” late at night like idiots. We definitely saw and heard some weird (stuff). The craziest was probably the lights in the sky. We watched three lights dancing around in the sky for about a minute before they suddenly came together as a triangle and vanished. I don’t even believe in UFOs in the traditional sense that they’re currently here visiting Earth. But I still can’t explain that one.
Also, just other random noises. Once, I heard a blood-curdling scream way off across a lake late at night. Might have been an elk or deer. The eyes watching you when you shine your flashlight out in the forest are fun because you never know if it’s a wolf, bear, deer, or something else.”
Reddit user Sudden-Mortgage4730 shared her experience while camping near Mount Graham and hunting by Williams:
“10/07/2023 Camping down near mt Graham and was walking to a neighboring camp my in-laws were staying at so I could get something for them and decided to cut through the desert instead of walking along the road, kept hearing a little girl say “Hey!” and “over here” clear as day…yea no thanks
Another time I was hunting up north by Williams and my dog and I went for an early morning walk, daylight out, clear and perfect, we were about a mile from camp when fog suddenly rolled in, my dog was super freaked out and bee-lined it back to camp leaving me in the dust, I’ve never been so unnerved as when my dog just nope’d out lol”
Reddit user SWSonoranBlue shared why you never whistle at night in the open desert:
“In Native American culture, tribes believe that you should never under any circumstances whistle at night. They believe a shapeshifter of some kind that can transform into any kind of animal even a human will whistle back. “Skinwalker” by the Navajo tribe and “Stekini” by another Sonoran desert tribe. It is also believed that if you do whistle and something whistles back, it is mostly not human, but a “Skinwalker” or “Stekini” watching you. If you happen to see one and try to run, they will make you hurt yourself trying to get away from them. They know when you are thinking of them and are scared of them, that fear is what draws them. Parents and grandparents tell these stories to their kids to warn them to be safe.”
User SecretPersonality178 backed up this notion with the comment: “Let’s just say I believe skinwalkers are real.”
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