The Rocky Mountains in Colorado are home to Slide Rock Bolters, whale-sized creatures who destroy or consume whatever is in their way. Roughly eighty feet long and twenty wide,  they perplex hunters and locals by being Colorado’s most evasive cryptid.

Slide Rock Bolters are described as giant, grey, teardrop-shaped lumps. The head has two distinct characteristics: small eyes and a huge mouth that stretches the length of its face. The body itself is limbless except for a whale-like tail which ends with hooks. With an overly drab and uncolorful appearance, the creature can easily be overlooked on the repeating craggy edges of the Rocky Mountains. This purposeful camouflage complements its ambush tactics.

The way Slide Rock Bolters hunt is they first perch themselves on an angled ledge (at least 45 degrees). This is likely achieved by snake-like or worm-like movements during the night when their prey is asleep. Once perched, with their hooked tail firmly anchoring them to the mountainside where they patiently wait for food. This wait can stretch months before the proper conditions to attack are met. Once there is a deer, bear, or human, and they are crossing or resting within range; the Bolter raises its tail unfastening it from the ledge. The multi-ton battering ram shoots down the mountainside, moving by gravity, enhanced by the excreted lubricant from its wide open mouth. While aiming for its food, the artificial avalanche barrels through any and everything to reach it; swallowing anything not flattened or thrown by its force. Their prey would not have time to react only enough to hear their fate before being enveloped and swallowed whole. The momentum of going down the mountain is commonly enough to get them to another mountainside, but if it not they have to have their ways of resetting. The aftermath of the hunt leaves clear markers of the path taken, warning travelers to be wary about the nearby peaks.

Slide Rock Bolters are interesting in another way, they love eating humans. Entire groups of tourists have reportedly been cut down by a single lunge. Whenever a traveler goes missing in the valleys a Bolter is assumed. This love for human flesh is so prolific that is has been used by hunters to kill them. One story goes that one forest ranger was lucky enough to spot a Bolter before crossing into its territory. The ranger came up with a plan to rid his forest of it. During the night he moved a human dummy underneath the mountain. The dummy was brimming with high quality explosives and set to go off if hit with sufficient force. To make sure that the dummy was seen, the ranger dressed it in bright touristy clothing and, as the cherry on top, a national landmarks pamphlet. When the first rays of sunlight hit the dummy, the mountainside trembled. Far out of sight the ranger knew that the trap had been seen. In the next instant, a deafening blast was followed by bright light and a small shockwave. Even the nearby town of Rico felt and saw the obliteration of the beast. The explosion so powerful that later when the ranger went to go investigate the corpse that there was little more than a crater and a huge red mist of finely pulverized flesh to be examined (Stories would later hyperbolize that the explosion destroyed part of Rico). After this new dazzling form of hunting was discovered reports of Slide Rock Bolters steadily decreased. Now they are extremely rare as the Bolters seem to have evolved with us, staying far in the mountains, careful to hunt unseen. Undoubtedly they still inhabit the mountains; one can tell by their tell-tale scarring of the land left after hunting.