Legend of the Grand Mesa Thunderbirds

I love Grand Junction and the western half of Colorado. I grew up here and my appreciation grows daily. Its “regular-ness” is probably the root of what I like the most. As we grow in population, I hope the Grand Valley will mature in culture and carry a greater appreciation for the landscape and outdoor joy in our midst. I want to tell a brief part of my life story that contains a connection to this land and to the greater cultural history of the area. This story relates to a feature on the Grand Mesa that looks over us everyday. After reading this, I hope more of us will look back with a deeper picture of where we live.

As a young man of 17 I went fishing at Butts Lake on the Grand Mesa with two of my closest friends. We watched huge tout cruise the shore and ignore our dangling lures... I grew bored. I scrambled straight above the lake unwittingly discovering my favorite hiking trail in Mesa County , Crag Crest. As I returned to my friends on the rocky lake shore, we heard an eerie sound for several minutes like a whale song blown through a curving vacuum hose.

We looked at each other and said nothing as the air moaned and vibrated, but all was perfectly calm around us. We were unnerved. We packed up our empty tackle and hurried down the trail for the car. On the drive home we stopped at Alexander Lake Lodge for a soda. We asked a man at the counter if he had heard any strange sounds that day. He said nothing as he handed us a sheet of paper that told this story;

The Ute Indians local to the area believed that great Thunderbirds ruled the skies and lived atop the Grand Mesa. One day the great birds attacked the Ute village and carried children to their nest on the Mesa ’s edge. The fiercest warrior of the village disguised himself as a tree and climbed the Mesa to the nest, discovering that the children had been eaten. In vengeance the warrior threw the Thunderbirds eggs over the Mesa edge to the valley below.

The Thunderbirds returned to find an empty nest. 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 great birds clinched their huge talons and lifted the giant serpent high over the Grand Mesa. In a raging storm the birds ripped the serpent to pieces hurling electrified pieces to the forest, creating huge scars on the Mesa . The storm raged and the gouges were filled with sorrowful tears from loss of their offspring, thus forming the many lakes of the Grand Mesa.

One of the Ute names for the Grand Mesa roughly translates to “Land of the departed spirits.” The Ute’s ritually suspended the honored dead high in the trees for their spirits to be carried by wind into the spirit world that exists on the Mesa . It is said that there are two strange winds that blow across the Mesa ’s crest, one is the Thunderbirds screeching for their lost young, and the other is from the Ute warrior calling for his child. I’m not sure which one I’ve heard, but my guess is the wail of the Thunderbirds.

A Legend for All to See

Up close illustration of Thunderbird and Serpent.

We can lay our eyes on the legend everyday from the Grand Valley . Just below the north edge of the Mesa above Palisade there is a natural light colored cliff in the trees which forms the shape of the great Thunderbird. Below the cliff is a long slender serpent like chute through the trees that is rarely visible. The legend tells that when this Thunderbird grabs the snake, it rains in the valley. I don’t suggest that I believe this or any other myths, but I have seen this happen. As my family returned from a long trip out west, I saw the setting sun strike the thunderbird and then light up the snake on the Mesa . Just then it began to rain and spread life giving rain across the valley. Keep your eye out for the great Thunderbird on the Mesa above town, and listen for the winds of the moaning Ute warrior. I don’t have a complete grasp of the Grand Valleys history, but I think this adds a cultural element currently missing in our story. Remember the past; its lessons can yield a brighter future.

View of Grand Mesa Thunderbird and Serpent from The Colorado National Monument.

Winter View.

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Please add photos at will. If you have additional information or corrections I'd love to take it on.

Update Upclose

Few bother to investigate the near side of the Mesa above Grand Junction and Palisade even though it is in our view daily. Colorado National Monument founder John Otto envisioned trails ascending the vertcal expanse near Palisade but was his attention was diverted to caretaking his new monument for a dollar a month in 1911... There are land issues that may also hinder extensive use.

I have been up the Swan feature to Palisade Point. August 28th 2009 I had the opportunity to climb the Trinity Peaks in the stunning Grenadier range of Colorado but instead chose to visit our local legend with my brother Dirk, a partner willing to suffer the potentially snaggy territory just to say we did it. We incurred a nightmare approach into the night on the lower ramparts by following the obvious road diveting us toward Chalk Mountain.

We saw witnessed mucho bear scat ascending back sout toward our goal on old defuct roads presumibly placed for power lines.

at 9AM we rounded the lower ridge and the bird came into view. More to this story in a bit...

Below is the view up close from under the great Thunderbird. there are a few more add in the image section of an August 28 foray up the Serpent and Thunderbird Couloir.
It is an interesting climb for our area. much of the approach can be made on old road grades. The upper couloir is a touch loose on chalky shale with a top forest section of baby head boulders interspersed with crawling through oakbrush, scraggly aspens, pine, and other brambles to reach the cleft of the Rapid Creek drainage.