SIGHTING: KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS, CA
Witness Testimony
" Flashing light high above Sequoia National Park on July 4th weekend.Our family took a recent trip to Sequoia National Forest/Kings Canyon to have some fun on the weekend of the July 4th holiday. The 4 of us (my parents, my wife and myself) stayed at the Montecito Lodge off of the 198 General’s Highway. We only stayed one night--the night of July 2nd.The lodge grounds have several summer-camp style buildings, each with their own amenities. We stayed in the main lodge building which includes the check-in and hospitality desk, kitchen and dining areas, recreation room, lodging and a patio on the southeast outside area for dining and lounging.Around 10PM on the night of July 2nd, my wife, my mother and myself wanted to get a look at the night sky. My father had already gone to sleep. At an elevation of 7,400 feet and a very clear mountain night, we thought we’d take the opportunity to see the stars. We went outside and onto the back patio area of the main lodge: it faces southeast down the canyon, with a clear view far into the High Sierra’s, with Mt. Whitney hidden off to the left, and the 198 Highway winding down directly ahead, and more of Sequoia down below and stretching far off to the South.At night, the view off the back patio was incredible -- completely unobstructed view of a huge area of night sky, with little to absolutely no local light pollution. We counted 2 orbiting satellites and a few aircraft at cruising altitude (though the air traffic was far away, not passing directly overhead) and hundreds of thousands of stars. You could clearly see the Milky Way with your own eyes.My wife left to go up to the lodge room around 10:25PM, but my mother and I stayed out for just a few more minutes. We were both looking directly Southeast, in the lower 25% of our viewing area above the horizon when we noticed one small burst of white light. We continued watching, as our first idea was that it was possibly aircraft beacon. But it then flashed again, with similar intensity but not identical. We both said to each other, “did you see that?” We kept our eyes focused on the area of sky -- we noticed an extremely dim almost pin-point light drifting upward when it flashed again twice, maybe three times, with in-consistent intensity. We were both unnerved and were at this point asking each other, “what the hell is that thing?” After flashing, the pin-point dim light would drift, up then down, left then right and stop -- flash, flash -- and then drift more. This went on for roughly 5 minutes, and eventually it stopped -- appearing to have completely diminished. It was just one sole source of light that seemed to be emitting the flashes, then drifting, to flash again before disappearing.The flashes of light were pure white, and very bright. The flashes expanded to nearly the size of a pencil eraser head held out at arm’s length. We realize that it was July 4th weekend, but this was not anything like fireworks. It was also not civilian aircraft or satellite activity, as we had clearly spotted those aircraft earlier in the evening. The altitude of the light appeared to be 50k feet or higher -- upper atmospheric, possibly--from our perception and location.To our knowledge, nobody else witnessed this, as the campgrounds were very quiet, and most people had turned in for the night at this time. It was clearly something strange, and we both continued to talk about it for the rest of our trip, knowing we’d witnessed possibly something paranormal or extraterrestrial.Observers' backgrounds: 1) 30 year old male, office manager of a production company in Los Angeles. 2) 59 year old female, retired High School English Teacher from Southeast Texas on holiday in Southern California.The location of the Montecito Sequoia Lodge is: 36°41’41.80” N, 118°52’20.15” W, elevation 7,414ft. "
