There is a Thunderbird image formed by trees on the Grand Mesa overlooking Grand Junction that looks like a Thunderbird with wings spread, and a long narrow serpent below it. The Ute legend says that when you can see the Thunderbird grip the serpent, it will rain in the valley.

Fossil Legends
Years past I read in our local news in Grand Junction that California Condors who were followed with tracking devices fly to Grand Mesa and were also witnessed on Lands End overlook. I can’t recall the exact date, but it was a few years either before or after 2000. I want to say 2003.
There was a recent documentary about Greek towns having reliquaries or sacred containers of fossils of -often containing rearrangements of giant bones to appear as a human or beast- that were used to corroborate their legends of giant humans and creatures. The Griffan for instance is a legend of a Lion bodied, winged and beaked giant that is found from Scythia farther east to western China. In this region fossils were found around the same time period of similar appearing creatures – sans wings.

Winged Fossils
I don’t know if arcteroptyx or Terydactil fossils hd been found in the southwest, but it is worth relating to as possible roots of the such stories.