Thermal Drone Captures Bigfoot Figure at Washington Campout

Posted Saturday, August 29, 2026

By Squatchable.com staff

Okay, this one stopped me in my tracks. A thermal drone encounter near Morton, Washington that turned into a full-blown face-to-face moment? Yeah, I had to talk about this one. So here's the deal. Back on March 26th, 2022, a group of 12 to 14 people were out on a camping trip in a quarry area near Morton, Washington. This wasn't their first rodeo either — the group had reportedly camped in this spot around 50 nights over the years, so they knew the area well. Morton sits in Lewis County, right on the edge of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which is prime Sasquatch territory in the Pacific Northwest. Lots of researchers have worked that region over the years for good reason. Anyway, things took a wild turn when strange rock clacking sounds started echoing through the trees. You know the kind — that distinctive knocking that witnesses have reported for decades. The group decided to send up a thermal drone to see what was making all that racket. What the drone picked up was jaw-dropping. Multiple massive humanoid figures moving through the trees. One witness described seeing a giant arm resting at an angle, and a body so thick and wide it looked like "a refrigerator standing next to a tree." The symmetry of the figure was something that really stood out to him. But here's where it gets really intense. One of the men on the trip — and get this, he said he didn't even believe in Sasquatch before this — ended up staring directly at one of the figures for nearly 30 seconds. Thirty seconds. That's not a quick glance. That's a full-on moment of connection. He described the face in detail. A mushy nose. Big eyes. A deep brow. A rounded head shape that didn't look gorilla-like at all. The eyes were what got him though — he said they looked wild and piercing, like the figure was studying him just as much as he was studying it. He even wondered if it was trying to memorize his face or look into his mind. Can you imagine? The figure was estimated to be about 3 feet thick at the torso, standing somewhere between 80 to 120 feet away. When the witness turned to check behind him, the Sasquatch dropped down and started crawling away at an angle, moving through the ferns. The witness could actually see the ferns moving as it went. What really makes this account stand out is the level of detail. The witness could see toes on the screen as the figure walked. He could see the fur hanging down past the ferns. The thermal drone captured things that a regular camera never could — body heat signatures, movement patterns, the whole shape of the figure in a way that's hard to fake. This kind of thermal footage is becoming more and more common in the research community, and honestly, it's changing the game. When you can see the actual heat signature of a large bipedal figure moving through the forest, it adds a layer of evidence that's tough to dismiss. The raw emotion in the witness's voice is something else too. You can hear it shaking as he recounts the story. This wasn't someone looking for fame or attention. This was a guy who had his whole worldview flipped in a single moment. If you haven't seen this one yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. The visuals from the thermal drone combined with the firsthand account make this one of the more compelling pieces of footage to come out in recent memory. Morton, Washington keeps delivering, and this encounter is a perfect example of why researchers keep coming back to the Pacific Northwest. Trust me, you'll want to see this one with your own eyes.