What Is Beyond Skinwalker Ranch?
Beyond Skinwalker Ranch is a History channel spin-off of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, the reality series that premiered on March 31, 2020. The parent show was developed by Prometheus Entertainment and Letter 10 Productions, the team behind The Curse of Oak Island, and it follows a group investigating reports of paranormal and UFO activity on a single Utah property. That group includes ranch owner Brandon Fugal and aerospace engineer Travis Taylor, and it relies heavily on instruments such as ground-penetrating radar.
The spin-off keeps the premise but changes the map. Instead of returning to the same pastures and homesteads, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch visits other locations where witnesses have reported similar activity: cattle mutilations, lights in the sky and what the franchise describes as UAP. That term, short for unidentified anomalous phenomena (earlier, unidentified aerial phenomena), is the US government’s preferred replacement for “UFO,” and it appears throughout both shows.
The record on the spin-off is straightforward. History lists three seasons and 25 episodes, with runtimes of around 42 minutes and a TV-PG rating. The first season aired in 2023, the second in 2024 and the third in 2025. If you want the full family tree of the franchise, including how the spin-off fits alongside the main series, the journal’s overview of Skinwalker Ranch TV shows lays it out season by season.
Who Hosts Beyond Skinwalker Ranch?
Two people carry the series on camera. Andy Bustamante is presented as a former CIA intelligence officer, and Paul Beban as an investigative journalist. Mocean Melvin narrates. The casting is the show’s central idea: one host approaches each site the way an intelligence officer might approach a source or a threat, while the other works it like a reporter chasing a story.
That framing matters, because it shapes how evidence is presented. Episodes are built around interviews with ranchers and local witnesses, field equipment deployed overnight, and the hosts comparing what they find with the reports from Utah. The franchise’s cast listings also show Brandon Fugal as a recurring presence across both programs, which keeps the spin-off tied to the original ranch even when the cameras are hundreds of miles away.
Season 2 also brought in a figure from the ranch’s past. The episode “Ranch From Hell” is described as the hosts teaming up with the original investigator of Skinwalker Ranch, a link back to the earlier era of research that built the property’s reputation long before television arrived.
Beyond Skinwalker Ranch Seasons and Episodes
Beyond Skinwalker Ranch season 2 is the best documented run, and it gives a clear picture of how the series works. Eight episodes aired between June 4 and July 16, 2024, ending with a recap of the season’s strongest investigations. The episode descriptions below are paraphrased from History’s own listing and describe what the show presents, not what has been confirmed.
| Ep. | Title | Air date | What the episode sets out to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skinwalker’s Evil Twin | June 4, 2024 | The hosts pursue what the show calls the same entity said to have driven Bigelow away from the ranch |
| 2 | Go Bigelow or Go Home | June 11, 2024 | The team deploys its largest piece of equipment to date |
| 3 | Smoking Gun | June 18, 2024 | A return to a Colorado cattle ranch with 16 reported mutilations |
| 4 | Ancient Dimensions | June 25, 2024 | A visit to one of the largest sites of Native American petroglyphs |
| 5 | The Landing Site | July 2, 2024 | A newly revealed site of concentrated activity, and what the show calls a new discovery |
| 6 | Tumbleweeds and UAPs | July 9, 2024 | Reports of strange activity in a remote Southern California desert |
| 7 | Ranch From Hell | July 16, 2024 | The hosts work with the original investigator of Skinwalker Ranch |
| 8 | Beyond the Beyond | July 16, 2024 | A recap of the season’s most compelling investigations |
Seasons 1 and 3 follow the same pattern of travelling investigations, and together the three seasons account for the 25 episodes History lists. Because the network’s catalogue can shift, the safest way to confirm a specific episode is the network’s own episode guide rather than fan wikis, which sometimes disagree on dates and numbering.
The Field Sites: Cattle Ranches, Petroglyphs and Desert Skies
The appeal of Beyond Skinwalker Ranch lies in its locations. Each one tests the same question: is whatever is reported in Utah unique, or is it part of a wider pattern? Readers wondering where Skinwalker Ranch is will find it in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah, but the spin-off ranges well beyond it.
The Colorado cattle ranch
The strongest thread running through the series is cattle mutilation, the term used for livestock found dead with tissue or organs removed in ways that witnesses describe as surgical. In “Smoking Gun,” the hosts return to a Colorado ranch where 16 mutilations have been reported. For the families who lose animals, these are not abstract mysteries. Each one is a financial loss and an unsettling discovery in their own fields.
The petroglyph site
“Ancient Dimensions” visits one of the largest concentrations of Native American petroglyphs. Rock art like this belongs to living communities whose ancestors made it, and its meanings are not a puzzle for outsiders to solve on a deadline. The ranch’s own name borrows from Indigenous tradition too, and the journal’s comparison of skinwalker and wendigo legends explores how differently those beliefs are understood by the people who hold them than by television.
The Southern California desert
“Tumbleweeds and UAPs” heads to a remote stretch of Southern California desert where people have reported strange activity in the sky. Deserts are a recurring setting in UFO lore for a simple reason: dark skies, open horizons and long nights make lights easy to see and hard to judge for distance or size.
What the Show Claims vs What the Record Shows
Like its parent, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch presents itself as a scientific investigation, so it is fair to separate what is documented from what is asserted on screen.
| Topic | Documented | Claimed or unverified |
|---|---|---|
| The series | A History spin-off with three seasons and 25 episodes, aired 2023 to 2025 | That it uncovered evidence of a shared phenomenon across sites |
| The hosts | Presented as an ex-CIA officer and an investigative journalist | That their backgrounds give the findings special weight |
| Cattle deaths | Ranchers reported 16 mutilations at the Colorado ranch | That the deaths have an unknown or non-human cause |
| Entities | An episode description refers to the “entity” said to have driven Bigelow away | That any such entity exists |
| Parent show | Season 4 opened with Travis Taylor saying he had worked as chief scientist on the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force | That the task force connection validates anything found at the ranch |
The pattern is consistent across the franchise. The people, places and broadcast history are well established. The anomalies themselves are presented through the edit, through witness testimony and through readings whose raw data viewers rarely get to see.
Ordinary Explanations and the Case for Something Stranger
What skeptics argue
Critics of the franchise have been direct. Jason Colavito, an author who studies fringe theories, has described the myths surrounding the Utah ranch as a modern invention of the late twentieth century, and characterised the parent series as a slow attempt to repeat the formula of The Curse of Oak Island. Science writer Russell Moul has argued that the show presents itself as scientific yet has produced nothing to support the experiences its cast describes.
Applied to Beyond Skinwalker Ranch, the ordinary explanations are familiar:
- Livestock deaths: skeptics point out that scavengers, insects and the natural process of decay can remove soft tissue and leave clean-looking edges that appear deliberate.
- Lights in the sky: aircraft, satellites, flares and bright planets can all look strange over open country at night, especially without a reference point for distance.
- Instrument readings: sensitive equipment picks up interference, and a spike on a screen is not a discovery until someone else can measure the same thing independently.
- Editing: reality television compresses days into minutes, adds music and cuts to reaction shots, all of which can make an ambiguous moment feel decisive.
The case for something stranger
Supporters see it differently. Ranchers who have worked their land for decades say they know what a predator kill looks like, and that some cases do not fit. Reports of lights and livestock deaths cluster in particular regions rather than spreading evenly across the country. The US government’s own decision to study UAP formally suggests that at least some aerial reports were taken seriously at official levels. For believers, the spin-off’s premise is reasonable: if something unusual happens in Utah, look for the same fingerprints elsewhere.
What remains open is whether any of the series’ sites share a cause beyond the ordinary. The show raises the question well. It has not answered it in a way that holds up outside the broadcast. For more on how aerial cases are weighed, the journal’s UFO and UAP section covers investigations from Rendlesham Forest to the Pentagon era.
How to Watch Beyond Skinwalker Ranch Critically
Beyond Skinwalker Ranch is most rewarding when you treat each episode as a case file rather than a conclusion. A simple method helps:
- Write down the claim at the start. Each episode opens with a question. Note it before the music builds, then check whether the ending actually answers it.
- Separate testimony from measurement. A rancher’s account is evidence of what someone experienced. A sensor reading is evidence of what a device recorded. Both matter, but they are different things.
- Look for the boring explanation first. Before accepting a strange light, ask whether the show ruled out aircraft, satellites or vehicles on distant roads, and whether it says how.
- Watch for follow-up. Notice whether a “new discovery” in one episode is mentioned again later with confirmation, or quietly dropped.
- Respect the people and places. Families losing livestock and communities connected to ancient rock art are real stakeholders, not set dressing.
Common mistakes viewers make
- Treating credentials as proof. An intelligence or engineering background tells you about a person’s training, not whether a specific reading is anomalous.
- Counting recaps as new evidence. Episodes like “Beyond the Beyond” revisit earlier footage. Seeing a clip twice does not make it stronger.
- Visiting the sites. The ranches in the series are private property. Trespassing on farmland or remote land is illegal and can be dangerous; the shows are the only sanctioned way in.
- Assuming silence means suppression. When a thread goes nowhere, the likeliest reason is that it went nowhere, not that it was hidden.
Where to Watch Beyond Skinwalker Ranch, and Will It Return?
Beyond Skinwalker Ranch is a History production, and the network offers full episodes through its website and app with a TV provider or subscription login. Live TV streaming bundles and on-demand stores sometimes carry the series too, but availability changes and varies by country, so check current listings before paying.
As for the future, History’s listing stands at three seasons and 25 episodes, and no official statement on record explains whether a fourth season will follow. The parent show, by contrast, has kept going: Skinwalker Ranch season 7 premiered on May 19, 2026, and ran for 14 episodes through August 18, 2026, bringing The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch to 86 episodes across seven seasons. Fans of the travelling format can still find plenty of related material in the main series, which continues to investigate the Utah ranch itself.
Whatever its future, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch made a fair point that outlasts its ratings: strange reports rarely respect property lines, and the only way to test a pattern is to go and look. Whether the series ever found that pattern is still very much up for debate. To keep exploring, browse the journal’s paranormal accounts, and for long-form conversations about the unexplained, the Troubled Minds Vault collects the radio show’s public back catalogue.
Questions and answers
Who are the hosts of Beyond Skinwalker Ranch?
The series is led by Andy Bustamante, presented as a former CIA intelligence officer, and Paul Beban, an investigative journalist. Mocean Melvin narrates. Ranch owner Brandon Fugal appears as a recurring figure across the wider franchise. The pairing is deliberate: one host frames each site as an intelligence problem, while the other approaches it as a reporter working a story.
How many seasons of Beyond Skinwalker Ranch are there?
History lists three seasons and 25 episodes in total. The first season aired in 2023, the second in 2024 and the third in 2025. Season 2 ran for eight episodes between June 4 and July 16, 2024, including a recap episode called Beyond the Beyond. Episodes run a little over 40 minutes each.
What streaming service is Skinwalker Ranch on?
Both The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch and Beyond Skinwalker Ranch are History productions, and History offers full episodes through its own website and app, which require a TV provider or subscription login. Availability on live TV streaming bundles and on-demand stores changes over time and differs by country, so check current listings before paying for anything.
What's under Skinwalker Ranch?
No verified discovery has established what lies beneath the ranch. On The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, the team used ground-penetrating radar and lidar scans and dug at a site called Homestead 2, where one scan was presented as showing a dark mass. Critics note that the show has not produced independently confirmed evidence of anything anomalous underground.
How much does Travis Taylor make on Skinwalker Ranch?
Travis Taylor's pay for The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch has not been made public. Cable networks and production companies rarely disclose individual cast fees, and any specific figure circulating online should be treated as a guess. What the record does show is that Taylor is presented as an aerospace engineer, and the show says he served as chief scientist for a Pentagon UAP task force.
Is Beyond Skinwalker Ranch worth watching?
It depends on what you want. Fans of the parent show often like the change of scenery and the travelling format, with cattle ranches, petroglyph sites and deserts replacing a single Utah property. Viewers hoping for proof should know that critics say the franchise has yet to present evidence that holds up outside the edit. Watch it as an investigation story, not a verdict.
Stay curious. Keep the question open.
Follow the evidence wherever it leads.
