Courtesy, International Crytoozoology Museum in Maine, Gordon Chibroski

Monsters don’t just live under beds and in closets. Many travelers and cryptozoologists – people whose study of creatures includes some that may have not yet been proven to exist –say Bigfoot and his legendary brethren are out there; you just need to know where to look.

Here are some of the creatures I found for a Strange Sightings slide show on Bing Travel:

Sasquatch/Big Foot

Sasquatch footstep castings, from the Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore

He’s huge, hairy and shy. Not your Uncle Jack; but the ape-like beings known as Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, said to roam the woods in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Bigfoot hunters claim they’ve gathered everything from Sasquatch film footage to hair samples, footprints and droppings left behind by the beast. But while the Big Foot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) has records of Sasquatch sightings in almost every state –more than 500 in Washington alone – so far no one captured one of these creatures.

Sighting tip: Spot a Sasquatch? Keep your distance. At least two Washington State counties are official Big Foot refuge areas where hurting or slaying a Sasquatch is punishable by hefty fines, jail sentences or both.

Mothman statue, Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Mothman: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Reports of a strange being described as bird-like and shaped like a man, but much bigger, with red eyes, a screeching voice and a wingspan of perhaps eight feet, began surfacing in Point Pleasant,West Virginia in the mid-1960s. Dubbed “Mothman,” this creature went on to be featured as a character in books, video games, TV show episodes and films, including The Mothman Prophecies (2002), with Richard Gere. Today, downtown Point Pleasant sports a Mothman Museum and, in Gunn Park, a shiny mothman-statue.

Sightings tip: Mothman fans gather in Point Pleasant each Fall for the annual Mothman Festival where events include guest speakers, film screenings and the Miss Mothman Pageant.

Ogopogo

Early Canadian First Nations people called the creature said to be living in Lake Okanagan ‘N’ha-a-tik.’ But as years went by, the thing witnesses swore was a sea serpent with a horse-like head, and which song penned in 1924 called “a cross between a pollywog and a whale,” became known as Ogopogo. Residents and visitors to British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley still keep their eyes peeled Ogopogo and report a few sightings a year.

Sightings tip: A statue of Ogogopo can be seen in Kerry Park, in Kelowna, B.C.

Fairies, Yetis, Nessie and other legendary creatures tomorrow…