1999-11-16 - Kayenta, AZ - Light

Bright Light with tail seen while driving on I-180

I was traveling east bound on I-180 at around 23:00 hr on 11/16/1999, looking for a cheap hotel room when I looked up and saw what appeared to be an extremely bright, bluish white star like object (brightest in the sky) with what looked like a long tail. The tail would grow to about the length of my thumb and then recede back into the star. The effect almost looked similar to that of say, a jet afterburner being turned on and then off. The object appeared to be about the same height as aircraft flying, I would guess around 30,000 feet? However, it did not appear as though it was a star. It made no sound or noise and was stationary during this time.

I watched the object and this tail grow and then shrink slowly (maybe the process of its tail going back into it took about 30 seconds, hard to recall). for about 20 minutes. I then checked into a nearby hotel, the Hampton Inn, and told the woman at the front desk about what was outside. She said people sometimes see weird things all the time and followed me out into the parking lot. When she looked up, she saw the object as well and remarked that it appeared to be changing colors, red, orange, and I believe yellow.

After that I decided to take my 35mm camera and drive west on I-180, back towards the desert and away from any lights, to take some photos of the object. I wanted to be sure that I captured it as best as possible so I took the photos with the aperture left open for around 30 seconds. Unfortunately I did not have a tripod when taking the photos and tried to position it on the ground braced against my jacket. Some of the photos, it is apparent that there is movement from the camera itself. Other photos clearly show the “tail” in question. After taking photos for roughly 15 minutes and beginning to get creeped out (I was in the middle of the desert and it was probably 12:30 or 1:00am) I saw a plane begin to approach the vicinity of the object. At this point, the object started to move in I think was an S type pattern. After that I was too freaked out to stay out “alone” in the desert and headed back towards town and the comfort of my hotel room.

A few days later I arrived in Los Angeles (my destination), and had the photos developed at a 1 hour photo lab. I specified that the negatives not be cut so that they could be scanned at some point. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to recall any other info.