A Colorado Tall Tale 

retold by

S. E. Schlosser

Way up in the mountains of Colorado lurks the slide-rock bolter. This creature has a huge head, slits where its eyes should be and a wide mouth with long, sharp teeth.

The diet of the slide-rock bolter is Colorado tourists. The slide-rock bolter will lurk at the top of a mountain peak, secured in place by its forked tail which has hooks in it, and watch for tourists. An unwary tourist, innocently sight-seeing through the Rockies, might suddenly find himself confronted by a slide-rock bolter tobogganing down the mountain towards him, its wide mouth gaping open. Before you can say George Washington, the slide-rock bolter will have scooped up that tourist and be resting on the next mountain peak, waiting for dessert to stroll by.

For a while there, some folks tried to rig a trap for the slide-rock bolters by stuffing a dummy with poison or explosives, dressing it in bright, touristy clothes and putting a guide book in its hand. But soon enough, those slide-rock bolters were seeing through the disguise and began eating the trap setters as appetizers, so they abandoned the practice.

You can read more Colorado folktales in Spooky Southwest by S.E. Schlosser