2017-12-11 - Skykomish, WA - Changing

Multi color round objects moving slowly near Skykomish, WA

I had snowshoed to appx. 4,600' level on NE shoulder of Cleveland Mt. SW of the city of Skykomish on US Hwy2. I dug a snow cave in a clearing that has clear site line to Skykomish below. It was dark by 5 PM so I was using a headlamp by the time I finished around 6:30 PM. Then I began melting water, cooking and getting ready to sleep. It was completely dark and NO moon light.

Around 7:45-8 PM I started noticing how clear and dark it was and how brite the stars were. Then I noticed 2 objects moving slowly toward me appx. 500-800 feet higher than my camp. They were moving SW toward me from above Skykomish. At first I thought brite stars then I thought Passenger Jet lights far off in distance.

They were about 1/2 mile apart. One seemed to be coming much closer and headed right toward my camp. Now I could see many different small lights Red, Blue, Green which seemed to change colors sort of fading in and out (not flashing) The shape was hard to make out. Seemed to be round or multi pointed star shape. The one coming closer was moving about the speed of a small helicopter but made no noise. The other one seemed to drift south slightly and then stayed close to one spot roughly above Sobieski Mt. to East across the Miller River valley.

Both objects appeared to have Aircraft Like "White" Strobe Lights that seemed to come from the top but not all the time. Neither object made any noise at all. Since it was too slow to be an airplane and wasn't loud like a helicopter I began to think the one coming toward me must be a drone. I estimate it came to within 600-900' from my camp but I still couldn't figure out the shape. It did not seem to be shaped or marked like a small plane and did not move like one at all. The lights seemed to shift around different ways which could be done by a drone rotating while also flying in a relative straight path. I don't know how far away a 4-6 propeller drone could be and you still would not hear the familiar buzzing of its propellers? These seemed larger than any drone I have seen. Perhaps 6' Dia. or so.

The object coming closest then turned slowly South and then SE toward the other and then circled over the wide valley area that is 2-3 miles West of Skykomish. The object that moved much less over Sobieski Mt. slowly dropped altitude until it was blocked from sight by trees.

The one that circled seemed to slow and hover off to the North across the valley for awhile then slowley moved on West until I lost sight of it. It was about 15 minutes that these were visible. If someone was flying a drone from Skykomish it would need to have a range of 2-5 miles to not risk loosing very expensive equipment. I have no idea why they would fly in the dark in winter. My headlamp would have been visible from Skykomish.

One or two passenger jets flew by during or after and made the normal flight paths much higher and with normal sounds. It was obvious what they were. Also, a small aircraft flew by later and had normal looking lights, speed, flight path and engine noise.

I can't explain what the two objects I saw were.