The Sleeping Indian
Last Sunday I hiked up to the top of Sleeping Indian Mesa, a rock
formation that looms across the river from my house. It got its name
from the fact that it looks remarkably like the head of an native
American in profile, with prominent rock bulges creating a cheekbone and
a brow. At certain angles of sunlight it really stands out. It looks
more like a native American than some other racial group due to the red
rock its made of, and by the way the less-steep part of the hill
collects snow in the winter, giving it the appearance of a feathered
headdress.
The top of the hill (the forehead) is small and pointed, so its
technically not a mesa. But the name precedes our time here in the
valley, and it will be called that long after we’re gone. The Sleeping
Indian is about eight hundred feet high, and creates a big gooseneck
bulge in the Colorado River. The view from the top is stunning. Looking
south one can see the thousand acre Colorado River Ranch, and of
Blowout Hill, an ancient extinct volcano. To the west is Big Red Hill,
perhaps the least imaginatively named piece of high ground in Colorado.
To the north is the gorgeous red rock canyon that I regularly take
float trips through, a piece of river valley I never tire of seeing from
any angle, time of day, or time of year. Looking west are the Flat Top
Mountains, home of some of the best fishing, elk habitat, and water
quality to be found in America. To the northwest, the white fang of Porphyry Peak juts out from the surrounding hillsides. Gazing down, one can see the roofs and
yards of every one of my neighbor’s properties, including not only my
own but the private beach on the river I use for my float business.
Confluence Casting Takeout
The opposite side of the Sleeping Indian is what I see from my shop,
and from there eagles can be regularly found hunting for gophers and
trout. A few years ago I got the pleasure of watching a golden eagle
being raised and fledged in a nest high up on the rock formation’s
flank. From the top of the Sleeping Indian’s head, its easy to imagine
the view that the eagles have looking back down on us. There’s a huge
dead tree that the eagle love to hang out in, and underneath that it’s
carpeted in eagle poop.
Thomas Ranch and Colorado River Ranch
There is also another tree up top known locally as the Underwear Tree,
so named because at some point in the past people started hanging their
whitey-tighties from it. There are still some remnants of old underwear
clinging to it, but its in serious need of a refresh. Tucked into the
roots of the Underwear Tree is a Nalgene bottle with a notebook in it,
so that hikers who have made the trip to the top can record their names.
The side that faces my house is north, and over the course of the
winter snow collects in some of the shady folds. Once I hiked up there
with an old pair of skis and attempted to ski down it, but in the end it
wasn’t worth all the effort. The rock skis that I used were only good
for mounting on a wall afterwards, or perhaps to make a fence or chair
with.
When we first moved here over twenty years ago, our first summer was
spent where my shop is now, and I’d often find myself just staring at it
for no good reason. That side of the Sleeping Indian faces due south,
and all day long it looks different. When the sun first rises above
Big Red Hill, there are one set of highlights that are lit. That’s when
the eagles can first be seen, usually by their shadows moving across the
rock face as they cruise back and forth looking for thermals. In the
middle of the day it becomes fully illuminated by the sun, but the late
in the afternoon when its setting over the Flat Tops, the colors deepen
and the striata become even more dramatic.
Red Dirt Open Space
Ringing the Sleeping Indian's chin is a horizontal line made by an
irrigation ditch. It looks like a chin strap holding the headdress on.
Its the result of some amazing engineering and extremely hard work done
over a hundred years ago. Water is diverted from Red Dirt Creek and
moved a couple of miles downriver to the River Ranch, wrapping around
the Sleeping Indian in the process. It was finished just after the turn
of the century, done the hard way by hand. Sections were redone in the
1950's to put some of the pipe underground, and old sections of the
original pipe can still be seen clinging to the hillside. The pipe
drops over a hundred feet, and resulting pressure is enough to send the
water across the river on an old suspension bridge. The water then goes
uphill for almost a quarter mile, and then follows another trench to the
River Ranch. Building such a project must have taken some doing back
in the day before heavy equipment.
The Flat Tops
For several nights in the 1970's UFOs were seen hovering around
the Sleeping Indian, but since I wasn’t here then I can’t personally
verify that. The closest I’ve ever come is seeing rows of Starlink
satellites moving across the night sky. (The first time I saw those it
did kind of freak me out). The Sleeping Indian does seem to be the kind
of large and unusual rock formation that some ancient astronauts might
be interested in.
The reason I went up there last weekend was to put some more solar
mini-lights back up. A few years ago I put a couple of strands on the
Indian’s chin, and they lasted a couple years until finally dying last
spring. The old lights were set to a random pattern that would blink off
and on. They were only visible from our house and the neighbors down
the river. This time, I went further up the hill and wrapped them
around a pair of dead trees near the tip of the Indian’s nose, where
they would be visible from the entire valley. They are both set to
gradually come on in blue and green, then fade out, then slowly come on
in red and yellow, then fade out, then all come on slowly, and finally
dim, before restarting. One tree does its routine about ten seconds
ahead of the other, and the overall effect is one of a slow pulsing,
like a small campfire at night seen from a distance. So far, the only
neighbors who’ve seen it have said that they like it. Our nighttime sky
here is very dark, and among the stars, planets, satellites and Milky
Way there is always some celestial display to be entertained with, but
this adds a little more color to it, especially on cloudy nights.
It had been a few years since I made the hike to the top, but once
there I lingered for much longer than I needed to after stringing up the
lights. The God’s eye view one gets from the top of Sleeping Indian
Mesa helps put our everyday life back into some kind of perspective.
But it won’t be years again before I go back up there again, and maybe
I’ll even bring an old pair of underwear with me next time.
Jack Bombardier
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