UFO Report from Julian, California
Report: 1356
March 13, 1997
I went to JTNP late after work from Long Beach, CA. Was planning a 3 day weekend as I did a lot then. When arriving at the park the campgrounds were full, by law you can camp at least 1 mile from the roads....So that was my plan and had done numerous times as the park is very busy in the spring when weather is mild.
I drove to a pull off near the Lost Horse Mine Rd on Keys View Rd where I packed my backpack, put it on, locked my truck, lit a cigarette and began to hike across the open alluvial flat to find a spot to stay the night. After about 10 minutes I put my cigarette out and continued about another 200 feet before happening to look back. When I did there was what I thought a bush burning right where I had put out my cigarette... I immediately dropped my pack, grabbed a Nalgene bottle of water and started running back towards where I thought I must have started a fire with the cigarette. As I got close the orangeish ball of light moved very quickly away as I approached. I froze in disbelief/confusion. The orb of fire colored light started panning around me after first moving directly away from me running at it. My next thought was it was someone with a laser pen playing with me (They were around at that time but I think in red, green and blue only but?). As it kept panning slowly around me (Maybe 200-300 feet away now) I noticed that it went behind a Joshua tree and the in front of another..... It was at that moment that I realized it was no laser as to be in front of one tree and behind another in close distance it must be emitting it's own light. Basically, I was convinced someone was playing a trick on me with a laser but when it was behind and then in front of a tree debunked triangulating someone from a fixed position (There are tall mountains very close by).
The orb continued moving at a slow fixed speed doing a 3/4 circle around me, stopped for a few seconds and then shot away almost instantaneously to the south and gaining altitude. It was out of sight in less than 3 seconds. It was a perfectly clear desert night.... So, that equates to an unimaginable speed and it had no "start up". It went to "light speed" (used as a reference) immediately. I obviously left the area and upon returning home on Sunday night and telling my brother he said that there were sightings in Phoenix. The famous Phoenix Lights sightings the same night.
This orb was very small. stayed about 3-4 feet off the ground. Made zero noise the entire time. Looked just like fire but round. No hyper defined edges but looked perfectly round. Left under unimaginable speeds.
I know what I saw. It was not ball lightning. To make things worse I just saw another orb but larger, I believe basketball or beachball sized. This time I was over 300 yards away and was seen for just a few seconds. This sighting was this last October on the flanks of the Inyo Mountains just after sunset near Mazourka Canyon. Independence, CA would be the nearest town. I cant say with certainty that this second sighting was a UFO but the first was so close and happened for such a long time and was reacting to me that Im SURE it was a UFO.