“Our Park Ranger surveillance has captured strange footprints at various parks & trails in the area. If you find these, or other unexplained phenomena, tag Round Rock Parks and Recreation Department on FB, or @roundrockpard on Twitter & Instagram. #RRSightings”
With that post on its Facebook page on June 11 and three black-and-white pictures, the Round Rock Parks and Recreation Department opened a big can of big worms about Bigfoot because everything really is bigger in Texas, including sightings of super-sized Sasquatch footprints … and more. A few days later, another post showed “curious clumps of hair evidence.” Has a Texas Bigfoot taken up residence in the Brushy Creek area just north of Austin?
The Round Rock Parks and Recreation Department was kind enough to leave the timestamps and locations on the photos. The well-defined footprint was taken on June 10th in Freeman Park, a new 40 acre park at the trailhead of the Brushy Creek trail system. The second was from Old Settlers Park, a 645-acre park that contains well-stocked Bright Lake but is better known for its sports facilities … has Bigfoot taken up soccer or disc golf? The photo with a ranger’s boot for comparison is from Brushy Creek Trail East. Brushy Creek is where the ‘round rock’ that gave the city its name is located. Is Bigfoot a Texas history buff?
The “hair sample” photos were taken at Rabb Park on the Brushy Creek, a small picnic area called Kinningham Park and McNeil Park, a popular spot for softball tournaments. Again, it seems like Bigfoot has been taking in all that the Round Rock park system has to offer. In fact, skeptics might (and do) think this Bigfoot is a park system employee trying to entice visitors to the parks, especially since they were found “at various parks & trails in the area.” Did anyone think to check the batter’s box at one of the softball diamonds for prints of a Bigfoot digging in for a 3-and-2 pitch?
The Houston Chronicle kept an open mind and interviewed some cryptid experts after they viewed the photographs. Here’s what Southeast Texas Bigfoot authority Russell Miller had to say about the footprint photo:
“I’m leaning towards not real at least on the top one. Too narrow at the instep.”
While the parks around Round Rock are nice, Miller thinks Bigfoot prefers the dense woods in east Texas. Some commenters on the Facebook page are also skeptical, wondering how a ‘surveillance’ camera could be triggered by a footprint but not the Bigfoot who made it. Also, why didn’t anyone take those ‘hair samples’ for DNA analysis?
Sasquatch sighting, savvy marketing by the park system or something else? Even the Bigfoot controversies are bigger in Texas!