In a raging storm the birds ripped the serpent hurling electrified pieces to the forest below, creating huge scars on the Mesa's previously smooth flat top.
The great birds screeched down and clinching the giant serpent in their huge talons and lifted it high over the Grand Mesa. They looked down to find that their offspring had been swallowed by a giant serpent (I think the serpent is meant to represent the Colorado River) in the valley. The white shale makes it easier to see in summer.The Thunderbirds returned to find an empty nest. The Thunderbird and Serpent hieroglyph 'highlighted' in winter. In vengeance the warrior threw the Thunderbird eggs over the Mesa's edge to the valley below. He discovering that the children had been eaten. The fiercest warrior disguised himself as a tree and climbed the Mesa to the nest. One day the great birds attacked the Ute village and carried children to their nest on the Mesa’s edge. The Ute Indians local to the area believed that great Thunderbirds ruled the skies and lived atop the Grand Mesa. He said nothing as he handed us a sheet of paper that told this story We asked a gray haired man at the counter if he heard any strange sounds or winds that day. On the drive home we stopped at Alexander Lake Lodge for a soda and some answers. We packed up our empty tackle and hurried down the trail for the car. We looked at each other and said nothing as the air moaned and vibrated. The air seemed to vibrate like a whale song blown through a continuously curving vacuum hose. As I returned to my friends on the rocky lake shore, we heard an eerie sound for several minutes. I scrambled straight above the lake unwittingly discovering my favorite hiking trail in Mesa County, the narrow ridge of Crag Crest. We watched huge trout cruise the shore and ignore our dangling lures. After reading this, I hope more of us will look back at the Mesa with a deeper sense of history and a feeling of how the Ute natives that lived here before us looked at their world.Īs a young man of 17 I went fishing at Butts Lake on the Grand Mesa with two of my closest friends. This story relates to a feature on the Grand Mesa that looks over us everyday. I want to share part of my life story that contains a connection to this land and to the greater cultural history of the area. The Thunderbird Hieroglyph watches over the sublimely beautiful Grand Valley.
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