Truck Driver Spots Bigfoot Before Crashing Off Cantabrian Mountain

Posted Saturday, September 05, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

There's something about a firsthand account that hits different, and this one stopped me in my tracks. A Spanish truck driver named Nel Villaverde shared a story on the El Coloso Del Bosque channel that has to be heard to be believed. What starts as a routine winter delivery through the Cantabrian Mountains turns into a 15-day ordeal that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the forests of northern Spain. Nel, a veteran trucker with 18 years behind the wheel, was hauling frozen goods from Mieres to León in January when a multi-car accident shut down the Autopista del Huerna. His boss suggested an alternate route through the Puerto de Tarna, a mountain pass cutting through the Redes Natural Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since the 1990s. Anyone familiar with this part of Asturias knows it's prime habitat for the Cantabrian brown bear, with brown bear warning signs posted in several villages. But what Nel encountered on that snowy pass wasn't a bear. Driving through whiteout conditions at the summit, somewhere around 1,492 meters elevation, he spotted a figure standing upright between two snow markers about 15 meters from the road. The proportions were wrong for a bear, the shoulders too wide, the stance too still. Bears don't just stand there when a 12-ton truck with headlights blazing comes barreling toward them. They bolt into the trees. This thing watched him. Then things got worse. On the descent toward Boca de Huérgano, his refrigerated trailer lost traction on the compacted snow. He went off the road, through an old metal guardrail, down a 30-degree slope through young pine reforestation, and crashed into an old oak tree. And here's where the story takes a turn that no skeptic can easily dismiss. Nel claims he was cared for by a family of these reclusive forest beings for 15 days. He describes a close-up photo he managed to snap on day nine, once he'd earned enough trust to pull out his phone. The image shows a hand, not his own, with five fingers but a thumb positioned lower than it should be, and thick, dark nails curved inward like a bear's claws. The battery was dead, so the photo couldn't be sent, but he took it anyway as proof for himself, knowing he'd doubt his own experience once it was over. The Cantabrian Mountains have long been part of European Bigfoot lore. Spain has its own rich tradition of sightings, with the creatures known locally by various names depending on the region. In Asturias and the surrounding areas, reports of large, bipedal, hair-covered beings have circulated for generations, often in the same mountainous terrain where brown bears still roam. Researchers have noted that the dense, ancient beech and oak forests of the Cantabrian range provide exactly the kind of secluded habitat these elusive beings would need to remain hidden. The Redes Natural Park, with its centuries-old woodlands, fits that profile perfectly. What makes this account stand out is the level of detail and the emotional weight behind it. Nel isn't selling merchandise or chasing clout. He sounds like a man who went through something profound and is still processing it. The fact that he was apparently nursed back to health by a family unit over nearly two weeks suggests a level of intelligence, compassion, and social structure that goes far beyond what mainstream science is willing to entertain. If you're even slightly curious about Bigfoot encounters outside the Pacific Northwest, this one deserves your attention. The storytelling is gripping, the setting is atmospheric, and the implications are enormous. Head over to the El Coloso Del Bosque channel and give it a watch. Just make sure you've got some time, because once you start, you won't want to stop.