Bigfoot? Footprints in frozen Alaska trail spark debate over who — or what— left them

A strange series of footprints found frozen atop an Alaska ice flow has sparked days of social media debate over whether the public should accept the National Park Service’s explanation of what caused them.

The four-toed prints were photographed on a trail in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve — and what makes them odd is the appearance of being on top of the ice, rather than in it. The park, described as “six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road,” is about 230 miles north of Anchorage.

Denali park rangers shared multiple photos on Facebook Monday and the post has since racked up more than 7,600 reactions, 250 comments and 5,800 shares. This includes people noting the prints were large and seemingly left by something walking on two legs.

The mythical half-man, half-ape creature Bigfoot (also called Yeti) eventually came up in the comments, along with at least one reference to aliens. This was after park officials noted bears have five toes.

“These tracks make no sense to me,” Valarie Labandero wrote on the park’s Facebook page.

“Like ghost tracks,” Brett Gibbens posted.

So what made them?

Park rangers say it was a wolf, and a natural phenomenon of nature morphed the prints into something not easily recognizable.

“These raised tracks were created when a wolf compressed the snow under its paws and then a strong wind blew the surrounding loose snow away,” the park explained. “The effect is a dramatic chain of raised tracks on the bare overflow ice just off the Mountain Vista Loop trail.”

It was an explanation many questioned almost immediately.

“Is the wolf walking on two feet?” Dann Brown wrote.

“What I see is only one row of footprints of what seems to be a two footed snowman,” Ozzie Godoy posted.

Park officials offered an explanation for that, too.

“Wolves have a very efficient stride and often put their hind foot directly in the track of the front foot, leading to an almost straight line of tracks like you see here,” park officials wrote.

As for the possibility of Bigfoot, there is a variation of the legend known as the Abominable Snowman and a representative of India’s Army reported in April 2019 that footprints belonging to the creature had found at a park in Nepal.

However, photos of those prints shared on Twitter do not resemble the ones photographed at Denali National Park.

This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Bigfoot? Footprints in frozen Alaska trail spark debate over who — or what— left them."