I’m back on the road again! I’m currently on my most ambitious solo road trip yet, and wandering much farther than I have before.
My last visit to the UFO Valley Campground in Utah had me very curious, and I wanted to see if I could witness any unusual activity again. There’s definitely something weird going on in that area, and I feel the need to study it more. The campground was along the way in the direction I was heading anyway, so I booked another stay.
I left Lawrence, Kansas on Sunday morning and set my GPS towards the campground. It’s a long way from home, though, so I didn’t do the whole drive in one day. I ended up getting a room in Georgetown, Colorado at the Georgetown Mountain Inn the first night. The campground is roughly 5 hours from this town, and check-in isn’t until 3:00 PM, so Georgetown seemed like a good place to crash for the night, and even sleep in a little.
I was starving, and conveniently, there was a nice-sounding restaurant right next to the hotel parking lot. Despite the internet saying it was open, it was, in fact, closed. I improvised and grabbed some pizza at Cabin Creek Brewing. I don’t know what it is about brewery food, but it always hits the spot.
As planned, I slept in a bit and then made my way to the campground. On arrival, I was greeted by who I assume must be the owner’s daughter. She went over the rules, and I was sad to find out that drones were no longer allowed to be flown in the area. I had such weird activity involving my drone the last time, so I was really hoping I could reproduce it again. Apparently, some creep with a drone was spying on the neighbors, so they decided to ban drones all together. Leave it to creepy dipshits to ruin it for everyone, I guess.
I set up camp right next to the fence that separates the campground from the infamous Skinwalker Mesa. It was hot and sunny out, but luckily my tent has a neat little “porch” that provided some shade. I warmed up some dinner (a can of Chef Boyardee raviolis, because I’m classy AF) and kicked back in a reclining camp chair until nightfall.
![](https://ghughsonphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_20240610_200909-1200x675.jpg)
Nightfall came, and after all of the activity from my previous stay, I was hoping for a repeat. I poured myself some delicious boxed wine into a plastic camping cup, sat back and watched the night sky, and then really didn’t see much of anything this time. It was a very calm, quiet night. Weirdly calm. Pretty much the most calm night that ever calmed. The only possibly weird thing I saw was something with a faint glow that flew slowly in front of the mesa. I have no idea what it was. Could’ve been anything, I guess. Of course, I didn’t get it on camera. Go figure.
It was a nice night, though, and the sky was clear. It made for a good opportunity to take some night photos.
![](https://ghughsonphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_5668-Enhanced-NR-1200x800.jpg)
At one point in the night, I decided to leave my camera shutter open for a full hour to see if anything happened to fly by and leave any interesting streaks in the photo. I also wanted to see if there was any kind of unusual distortion in the star trails that I’d inevitably capture. I have a theory that whatever’s going on in this area can distort light passing through, and it would surely show up in the star trails if that were the case. I also theorize that the activity comes in waves, so this is one of those experiments that’s probably going to require several sessions. As quiet as this night was, I didn’t expect to see any distortion this time, and it looks like I was right. There is, however, an odd streak of light in the middle of this photo that isn’t a star trail, and isn’t a plane. It could be a satellite, but it makes a sudden turn at one point (maybe satellites do that, but I’m not totally sure.) Can you spot it?
![](https://ghughsonphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_5667-Enhanced-NR-1200x800.jpg)
Despite the quiet night, I’m still curious about this area. I’m pretty skeptical about stuff like this, but there’s something odd about this particular area, so I intend to return again.
For now, my journey continues Northwest.
-GH