Washington Bigfoot Sightings: The Top 5 Sasquatch Hotspots Near Olympia
Washington State has more reported Bigfoot sightings than any other state in the country. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has catalogued hundreds of credible encounters here — and a surprising number of them cluster in the forests surrounding Olympia. If you're going to look for Sasquatch, these are the five places Captain Ron recommends starting.
## 1. Capitol Forest
Ninety-one thousand acres of dense second-growth timber just west of Olympia. The BFRO has logged over 30 credible sightings here since 1970, concentrated along the old CCC trails near Porter Creek and the ravines of the Middle Fork. In 2019, a trail camera near Rock Candy Mountain captured thermal imagery of a large bipedal figure at 3:47 AM that three wildlife biologists couldn't identify. Best access: the Capitol Forest trailheads off Waddell Creek Road. .
Plan a Capitol Forest Sasquatch weekend with the Trip Planner
Theme: Bigfoot tracking, deep-forest hiking and night sky watching in Capitol Forest
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## 2. The Skookumchuck River Valley
The river corridor between Tenino and Centralia cuts through remote bottomland forest that rarely sees foot traffic. Hunters have reported wood-knocking responses, rock-throwing, and one 2016 account of a tall, dark figure crossing the river on two legs in waist-deep water — something no bear does. The name itself is a hint: "Skookum" comes from the Chinook jargon word for a powerful spirit of the wild places.
## 3. Mount Rainier's Western Foothills
The Ashford and Elbe corridor, where the Nisqually River drains off the mountain, has produced sightings going back generations. The deep river canyons and old-growth stands here are exactly the terrain Sasquatch researchers consider prime habitat. Several witnesses over the years have described hearing loud, rhythmic calls echoing off the canyon walls at dusk
Build a Mount Rainier foothills mystery trip
Theme: Bigfoot lore, old-growth hiking and small-town legends around Mount Rainier's western foothills
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## 4. The Olympic Peninsula's East Slope
The Hood Canal side of the Olympics — the Staircase area and the Duckabush and Hamma Hamma river valleys
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Theme: Olympic Peninsula backpacking, old-growth forest and Sasquatch hotspots near Hood Canal
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## 5. The Black Hills
The sprawling timberlands southwest of Olympia, where Capitol Forest fades into Weyerhaeuser land, are a local favorite. The hills are crisscrossed with logging roads but see almost no overnight human presence. Multiple witnesses have reported eyeshine at heights of seven feet or more, and the hills have a long history of unexplained vocalizations that don't match coyotes, owls, or anything else on the books.
## What to Do If You See Something
Stay calm. Don't run. Note the location, time, and direction of travel, and photograph any tracks with something in frame for scale. Then report it — the BFRO takes Washington reports seriously, and Captain Ron reads every tip that comes through this site.
"I've spent more nights in these forests than I can count," Ron says. "I can't tell you what Sasquatch is. But I can tell you something is out there — and it knows these woods better than we ever will."
Ready to go looking?
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Theme: Bigfoot sightings, cryptid lore and Washington's most mysterious forests
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