Footsteps in Mono County, California

I went to Mono Lake with my father early in the morning to capture some long exposure photos of the sunrise. We arrived at the lake around 6 AM right at golden hour. When we got to the parking lol there was one other car parked in the lot. After grabbing my photography gear (camera bag/tripod) we began walking down the path towards the lake. I was looking off to my right hand side and clearly saw something that was all black and bipedal walking parallel with me about 15 yards away. It ducked behind a small tufa as I was watching it walk. I told my dad that I saw something walking on 2 feet and he said that he saw something moving over in that direction as well. I knew that there was a person in the same area as us since there was a car parked in the lot when we arrived so there was still a possibility that what I saw was a person dressed in all black, although it would be strange for a person to be walking off the path in the area where I saw this thing since we were still away from the lake where all of the points of interest are. My dad and I continued to walk towards the lake to shoot the sunrise. As we approached the lake there was another photographer who had their camera mounted on their tripod and was taking photos. At this point I realized that what I saw walking was not a person since the owner of the car who was parked when we arrived had just been accounted for. I did not think I would ever experience something like this in my lifetime. I wish I would have gone to the area where I saw it and looked for some evidence or footprints but I was too scared to stray off the path since it was able to disappear in the brush / tufas so easily.