Trips to the national parks that surround Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Baker are nothing new to the residents of Sunny Mountain Retirement Community in the Queen Anne area of Seattle. The trips are filled with opportunities to connect with other residents, see the sights and sounds of the beautiful parks, and dine at the local restaurants for the evening. However, it was the trip to Mount Rainier in March of 2012 that residents won’t soon forget.

“It was just an average trip, or what we thought was average”, said activities director Tom Hummer. “But what we encountered was anything but average.”

The residents of Sunny Mountain Retirement Community were scheduled to take a short 2-mile hike through the foothills of the mountains. The hike takes hikers past beautiful ponds and cascading waterfalls, but on this beautiful spring day it had another mysterious sight added to the hike.

“We were walking and talking, just listening to the beautiful sounds of the running water”, said Sunny Mountain resident Joan Gallows. “All of a sudden we hear this rustling through the bushes, and we think we’re going to see a bird, bunny, bear or deer, but no we see something else entirely.”

The residents of the Sunny Mountain Retirement Community stumbled upon a baby Sasquatch. Sasquatches, or what people commonly call Big Foot, are thought to be native to the Mount Rainer region. There have been numerous sightings in the area, but no official documentation that such creatures exist.

“This creature looked like a tiny little fluff ball”, said resident Chris Billings. “Well I guess you wouldn’t call it a fluff ball or little, it was about three feet tall, but you could tell it was a baby! It just kept sitting there munching on what looked like a pizza from the local restaurant and staring up at us.”

The baby Sasquatch stayed with the group for approximately 10 minutes, before running off into the distance. Sasquatches are extremely rare, but officials believe that their mating season is sometime in the early to late summer, which would place the baby Sasquatch at the proper time.

“What I believe these senior retirement community members encountered was indeed a Sasquatch”, said official Big Foot hunter Tom Ford. “It is extremely rare that they would come across this, and unfortunately no one had a camera, but based off of the testimony of the residents I believe wholeheartedly that it was a Sasquatch.”