Couple who went hiking at a 'Bigfoot' hotspot noticed one chilling detail in one of their photos

The enduring tale of Bigfoot, a mythical creature with a tall and humanoid figure, said to roam the forests of the northwestern United States and western Canada, has spurred on indefinite historical stories about its existence. It has been referenced everywhere, from cartoons to history books. However, that folklore has traveled through time and is still debated in the 21st century. A couple who went hiking in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia discovered a chilling detail from one of the photos they clicked during the adventure. Unable to explain it, hiker Duffy Springfield (u/fwunnyvawentine) took her confusion to Reddit and asked for public opinion given the region is overshadowed by conspiracy theories and creepy encounters. 

The hiker narrated the strange occurrence in a viral post, upvoted 26,000 times, saying she and her boyfriend visited a state park in Panther, West Virginia during the off-season in March 2024. After a fun day outdoors and clicking loads of pictures with her camera, Springfield got the film developed and found a crazy detail when skimming through the pictures. When she looked closely at the photo of a pillar lodged at the top of a mountain, a strange hand-like figure emerging from the pillar’s right edge caught her attention. “I took this pic at the top of the mountain. Behind the pillar should have been nothing, a drop off to the woods below. Are we bugging? That really looks like a hand,” she wrote in the post’s caption. 

It was not possible for anyone to hide considering it was a situation right at the edge of the mountain. Also embedding the picture in question, the hiker made it certain to mention that the local park ranger had conveyed that they were the only couple in the park. “According to the park ranger (and the conditions of the hiking trails) we were the only ones there for the week and had been the first there in a while,” the note added. The eerie detail pointed out by the Reddit user sparked a debate in the comments. People were wary of a person hiding behind the pillar because of how the shadow appeared crooked at a certain angle.

“Look at the shadow. That 100% looks like a crouching person hiding behind the pillar,” speculated a person (u/DreamOfDays). Whereas, a skeptic netizen (u/virgo911) wrote, “How big is that structure? Does a hand that size make sense?” The original user clarified that the pillar was about 4 feet tall. “Could be fungus but yeah that really looks like a hand,” said someone else (u/OmniscientRaisn) while another netizen (u/steak-n-Cigars) added, “Yikes. It kinda looks like a curved shadow also where a body would be if it were a hand.” The mysterious photo entangled itself with the legend of Bigfoot. Springfield, who is a student at Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, later talked to Newsweek about the creepy encounter. 

Stemming from her knack for film and photography, she and her boyfriend were putting together a scrapbook of memories from hiking in the mountains, which is when she spotted the “hand.” “I just kinda saw it—I'm not really sure how I even noticed it since it's such a small detail," Springfield said. They agreed that it was rather weird and resembled a hand. However, the couple were “pretty excited” because it went with the numerous accounts of creepy sightings and haunting stories of cryptids–an animal whose existence is disputed– in the West Virginia mountains. “Even if it's not actually a hand, it's a fun story to have," she quipped.