SIGHTING: GOLD CANYON, ARIZONA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I was returning from bird photography in S. AZ. I was driving between Globe, AZ and Superior, AZ at the time of the first sighting. I saw two amber lights in a location that I knew there were no buildings in the mountains. I was just about to enter the tunnel about 2 miles outside of Superior. I knew I would have a better view once through it. Unfortunately they were no longer there. Only a few minutes had passed since the initial observation. I proceeded on and was able to now view a group of three lights that appeared to be between Florence, AZ and Queen Creek, AZ. I finally found a spot to pull off and view with binoculars. All that could be see was amber/gold round lights. They did remind me a bit of the air force flare drops on the Barry Goldwater Range. The three lights went out so I proceeded towards my home in Gold Canyon. Soon I saw two more lights and pulled over. I attempted to hand hold my camera with telephoto lens - the exposures were long and blurry. I proceeded the last few miles and stopped in the Basha's shopping center parking lot where I pulled out a tripod and attempted photos/videos of three white non moving lights. When observed with binoculars they seemed to have a light orbiting the main light. I will review my results soon.All the while I saw the lights I believed they might be flares. I could never see strobes from a plane dropping them though. They did not behave like flares I have seen in the past. Plus from where I estimated them to be - they would not have been in military airspace. I phoned a friend who lives in Queen Creek to go outside and look. He said they were to his west. I phoned a friend who is a pilot to see if he had a scanner or such to see if there was talk of this but he did not. Unfortunately, I had developed a bad enough migraine to not pursue trying to get a closer look. I went home and told my wife. She helped me get back in the car and drove a mile or so down the road to a park area to try to see them. There were not there to begin with but we finally spotted the last two of the evening very low on the horizon to the SW. She too, viewed them with binoculars. Every instance of sightings the lights were motionless but did seem to fade in and out. They were extremely bright on a very clear night.I just felt confused and tried to rationalize that these were flares. If my estimation of their distance to me was correct it doesn't make sense. If it was an extreme illusion as to how close they were - flares would be my main guess. The white light objects I have no explanation for. Once again - reviewing the video and possibly having a videographer friend help me with it will be my next step."