Disk over Estes Park, CO
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
On the morning of September 04, 2023, at approximately 2:30 in the morning, my passenger and me saw a brightly lit object traveling towards us at approximately 100' as we drove East on Prospect Avenue in our car, away from the Estes Park Medical Center. Given our proximity to the hospital, we assumed it was the medical helicopter with its landing light illuminated preparing to land there. However, as the craft approached us, we realized that it was much too large to be a helicopter, it was disc shaped with bright, white, hazy lights around its perimeter, and it was completely silent. When the object and our vehicle caught up with one another, we came to a complete stop as the flying object also stopped and hovered silently above us at approximately 100'. It was a very large disc that was very brightly illuminated with white lights, and it hovered completely silently. After watching the object for approximately five minutes, we became a little concerned as to its intentions, so we decided to depart, and as we did, it also silently and rapidly flew off. As a private pilot myself, I am certain that it was not a craft developed or operated by humans.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #178497). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2023-09-01 → 2023-09-18
From the same sky
Related entries
September 25, 2023 · 3:30 PM · DISK
Estes Park, CO
Took a photo of the church at Camp Malo, Colorado. Later, while looking at my photos, I noticed something strange and unusual in the sky above the church cross that I can't identify. I spent 30 years in the Navy and saw a lot of very interesting things flying into and out of the ocean and across the sky. I also worked a lot with helicopters and jets and this doesn't appear to be either. I didn't see this object when I was taking the photo, and it doesn't appear in any of the other photos of the church that I took. When I zoomed in to get a closer look, it almost looks disk shaped with a rectangular light on top. [NUFORC annotation: Bird - Probable]
July 23, 2023 · 1:00 AM · LIGHT
Estes Park, CO
...not able to speak. I was trying to wake up my brother and my boyfriend but I was not able to move or speak. I was completely sober and scared to death and just waiting for the thing to go away. I don't know how much time went by but it seemed like an eternity. I don't remember falling asleep but I woke up the next morning and spoke to my brother and boyfriend about this and I have never forgotten.
June 2, 2022 · 10:00 PM · LIGHT
Estes Park, CO
Multiple lights moving at high speeds through the night sky at extreme speeds. The light will be bright as a star in the sky, then fade out and disappear. Moving in random directions, stopping and turning going fast one way and picking up the same speed the opposite direction. Both my partner and I are witnessing this as we speak. This is being seen in a dark area where human lights (car lights, street lights, etc.) are not impeding our ability to see the dark night sky.
November 12, 2017 · 5:40 PM · SPHERE
Estes Park, CO
My husband and I were seated in our living room, in the dark, shortly before 6 PM. Our chairs face generally north, overlooking what is called “Lumpy Ridge” in Estes Park, CO. He asked me if I saw the red light over the ridge, which brought my attention to it. He watched it move quickly west, then east, and it came to a stop as I spotted it. It hovered for several seconds, then sped off to the east and disappeared from our windows’ view. My spouse commented that it was too high and moved too fast to be a plane, a drone, a helicopter. In addition, he said he saw no light except the red (the entire object was red). His understanding is that FAA approved aircraft had to have different colored lights on port, starboard, and at the rear. If this one had those, we would have seen lights with colors other than red as it turned directions. Instead, we only saw the one color, which would indicate that it was flying back and forward without turning, and he could not imagine a craft that could do that. Looked too high and fast to be a drone purchased off Amazon. Not sure what we saw, and if my husband’s impressions about required lighting on approved crafts is accurate. First time we’ve seen something like this.
July 10, 2016 · 10:30 PM · LIGHT
Estes Park, CO
4 green lights in close formation, alternating to red lights, then back to green, hovering over ridge to the southwest of our location, then slowly moving sideways, up an down, away, then back again, somewhat erratically. We watched this for about 15 to 20 minutes. The lights then sped off to the west, and we could see them just above the horizon for about another 15 minutes. These lights seemed to be roughly 5 or so miles away and about 2000 feet above the ridge line.
February 4, 2016 · 9:00 PM · OVAL
Estes Park, CO
Approximately 21:00 on 2/3/2016, I was travelling west on CR43 from Estes Park to Glen Haven. Saw a bright light in the Eastern sky which was not moving. The object was at approximately a 30 degree angle above the horizon. Was a clear night. Looked like O___ The O was a bright white light with the ___ attached to the O with varied colored lights which were not blinking. Looked at object up to my home location lane. Followed the object all the way up my lane. Was not facing the object when exiting my auto; when turned around to obtain a better view of the object; it was gone.