2016-07-09 - Herron Island, WA - Light

Lights/Orbs seen crossing the sky with no noise.

This event happened on the night of July 9, 2016, at approximately 10:15pm. At the end of a week-long camping trip, myself and a friend and his son were staying with friends at their cabin on an island in Case Inlet in Puget Sound, just north of Olympia, Washington. My friends’ cabin is on the south-west side of the island. The day had been mostly overcast and breezy, but the clouds had been clearing off in the evening and the breeze had died down.

All five of us were enjoying the evening conversations on the lower deck, standing around a campfire we had built in the pit. I started to walk up the path towards the upper deck and the cabin when I noticed an orange light/orb rising up through the trees, towards the center of the island. It really surprised me because the light was very bright and very orange/red and seemed out of place.

I turned back to the other four people and asked “what is that?” as I pointed to the sky. They we perplexed as well. The light looked like an orange or red LED light. It was very intense. I thought it looked like fire, but with no flickering. We thought that maybe it’s a firework floating under a parachute, since the day was just past the fourth of July. But the light continued to rise and come towards us from east to west and slowly arched towards the north. The breeze that was blowing around 5 to 10 mph, was blowing towards the east, so the light was traveling against the breeze.

As the light arched to the north and was almost above us, it suddenly blinked out. I mentioned to the others that it made absolutely no noise. I would estimate the light/orb to be approximately 800-1000 feet high.

Just as the light “blinked out,” another light appeared from the same area as the first and began to come towards us. It took almost the same path in the sky as the first, but came further to the west. Again, no noise and it arched towards the north and disappeared above us. This time I noted the light was higher, but still below the clouds.

We again began conversing as to what this could be. Someone mentioned a drone. But no noise and why would its lights turn off above us? Someone else asked if it could be military flares. But no variation in the light and no smoke visible or no parachute. Maybe a paper lantern? Again, no variation in the light like a flame would make. And why were they moving against the wind direction? Again, just as that light disappeared, another rose through the trees, followed immediately by a fourth light. At this time my friends wife and I began walking through the yard and around to the front of the cabin and on the road to get a better view. My other three friends remained in the back yard. Both lights traveled the same but slightly wider arch across the sky, moving about the same speed as a small airplane would move. Both of those lights disappeared behind some trees that were blocking our view now. A fifth light appeared from a slightly different place (or maybe us changing our location made it seem as so). As this fifth light moved across the sky I heard the sound of a small airplane approaching. I turned to the south and saw the plane flying towards the light. I could tell it was an airplane. The sound and the navigation lights, definitely an airplane. The plane flew what looked like beside the light, but I noticed the light was a little lower than th! e plane. I lost track of the airplane, but the light was straight above us and it had stopped in the sky. This time I took a very good look at the light. It looked like fire, but with absolutely no flickering of the light. It had the intensity of LED lights, both red and orange like in a small cluster. I noticed stars above it, because the sky was clearing. As the light was stopped straight above us, it also blinked off. I looked at my friends wife and she looked at me and we both asked each other “what are we looking at?” and “what is this?” I told her I was going to my car and getting my dsl camera. I also grabbed a very powerful flashlight. I remembered all of our cell phones were inside the cabin being charged.

Another light rose through the trees as I returned with my camera. I tried to take a photo, but the camera only flipped up the flash and wouldn’t take the picture. Too dark. I took out my flashlight and turned it on and shown it directly at the light which was now moving directly above us. The orange orb stopped in the sky when I did this. I was flashing my flashlight on and off. My friends wife looked at me and said “what are you doing?” In my mind I suddenly realized that I might not want to signal this thing. I turned the flashlight off and the orb again moved across the sky. As it got to our north, it also blinked out. I guess I was trying to see if there was a balloon or parachute holding up these lights. I saw none.

After these six lights, there was no more. We waited for another 5 minutes and saw nothing. It was getting cold outside, so we decided to go in for the night. My friend (the owner of the cabin) went down to the lower deck and made sure the fire was out. When he returned to the cabin, he said there was one more orange orb that appeared. The whole evenings events lasted approximately 30-35 minutes.

The next day we discussed the occurrence from the night before. Two of my friends seemed to laugh it off. The other three of us were still perplexed. I have never seen anything like this before and I cannot get it out of my head. I checked on the internet and ran across the UFO reporting website. While scanning through the sightings database, I came across a report from the town of Enumclaw, Washington 5 nights prior to our sighting. The similarities sent chills down my spine.


((NUFORC Note: We spoke via telephone with the source of the report, and he sounded to us to be quite sober-minded. We suspect that he is an excellent witness. PD))