Drone Thermal Camera Spots Mysterious Hunched Figure on Hillside

A thermal drone flight in the High Cascades has produced some seriously intriguing footage that has the Sasquatch community buzzing. The video, uploaded by the YouTube channel Squatching the PNW, captures a nighttime drone operation where the operators spotted an unidentified heat signature on a distant hillside. Right from the start, you can feel the tension in the air. The drone pilot is clearly anxious about flying, mentioning she gets "plenty of pucker moments" every time she takes this particular drone up. But once the thermal camera is pointed toward the mountainside, things get interesting fast. A distinct heat source appears on the slope, and the two people watching the feed are immediately struck by what they see. One describes it as looking like "eyeballs" glowing back at them, while the other notes that whatever it is appears to be "hunched down." The pair debate what the figure could be, with one hoping it's not a cougar or a bear. But the more they watch, the more uncertain they become. The heat signature doesn't move like typical wildlife, and the shape doesn't quite match anything familiar. Then comes the audio — a sound like gravel sliding down the hillside, which prompts an immediate comparison to one of the most famous Sasquatch encounters in recorded history. The reference to Ape Canyon is impossible to ignore. For those unfamiliar, the Ape Canyon incident of 1924 remains one of the cornerstone events in Bigfoot research. A group of miners near Mount St. Helens in Washington claimed they were attacked by large, ape-like creatures that hurled rocks down at their cabin. The story has been debated for a century, but for believers, it stands as a powerful piece of evidence that something unusual was — and perhaps still is — roaming the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The fact that the drone operators instinctively connected their experience to that very event speaks volumes about the atmosphere of that night. What makes this footage particularly compelling is the combination of factors. A thermal drone eliminates many of the usual explanations — it's not a trick of the light, not a shadow, not a case of mistaken identity in the dark. The heat signature is real, and it's on a steep, forested hillside in terrain that would be difficult for a person to navigate casually at night. The hunched posture, the glowing "eyeballs" effect that thermal cameras often produce when capturing the eyes or face of a warm-blooded creature, and the accompanying sounds all add layers to an already mysterious encounter. The operators ultimately decide to stop recording, partly due to drone technical issues and partly because the situation felt genuinely unsettling. They never definitively identify what they saw, which honestly makes the footage even more compelling. There's no overreach, no grand claims — just two people who saw something they couldn't explain and had the good sense to document it. This is exactly the kind of raw, unfiltered encounter that keeps researchers and enthusiasts digging deeper. The Pacific Northwest has long been considered prime territory for Sasquatch activity, and the High Cascades are no exception. With thermal technology becoming more accessible, we're likely to see more footage like this emerge, and each new piece adds another thread to a tapestry that's been weaving itself for generations. Definitely worth checking out the full video for yourself. The atmosphere, the reactions, and that chilling moment when they connect their experience to Ape Canyon — it all comes together in a way that words alone can't fully capture. Head over to YouTube and give it a watch. You might find yourself staring at that hillside right along with them.