Mount Timpanogos stands tall today reaching over 11,000 feet which is the second highest summit of the Wasatch Mountain range. Spring water leaks and rushes down the mountain side with fresh wildflowers breathe in the clean air. Families, students and more have come to this beautiful place to hike, but little do they know the actual legend of Mount Timpanogos. There are 2 prominent stories that explain the romantic history behind this mountain.
The Legend of Princess Utahna
Many years ago, a tribe of Native Americans lived on top of a mountain. Every year they would participate in a human sacrifice to please the God named Timpanogos. One year the season was very dry and everything was dying. The crops would not grow and the people grew hungry and afraid. The people thought they had done something wrong, and the Great God was angry and punishing them. The people came together and chose several girls in the tribe that were very beautiful and came from important families. Each girl was blindfolded and drew a small rock from a dish, determining who would be sacrificed. The chosen girl was the beautiful, kind and very loved Princess Utahna; she was the chief's daughter. Everyone was upset about the outcome and wanted to come up with some other way, but Utahna had already committed to her destiny and began her climb up the mountain.
What she didn't realize is that she wasn't alone. A young boy, who had fallen in love with her, did not want her to be sacrificed. He followed her journey up to the summit and stayed behind to watch her chant, pray and fast to Timpanogos. She cried out for her people, asking Timpanogos for forgiveness and to give the people rain for their crops. They had reached the top and Utahna was ready to fall to her death when they boy came out of hiding and began begging and pleading her to not jump. Utahna was stunned, thinking that she was in the presence of Timpanogos himself. She followed him to a beautiful cave, away from danger and there they had spent almost 2 years together. Utahna had completely fallen in love with him.
One afternoon a bear had found the two of them and attacked the boy. She realized at that point that she was not in the presence of a God but a man. She was not upset with him, rather she helped him with his wounds and waited for them to heal. Yet, she knew her fate and knew she had to set out on what we she was destined to do. She left the cave late one night, after the boy had fallen asleep and took the last leg up towards the summit. As the sun began to rise above, there she took her last breath and leapt off the side to her death. The boy had woken up and found that Utahna was gone. He went up the mountain to find her body shattered and broken and he carried her all the way back to their cave. He wept and cried out to Timpanogos as he took his own life. They both began to seep into the earth and became a part of the mountain. The cave grew with the most beautiful and colorful minerals in honor of these two lovers.
The mountain still whispers of cries and chanting, as the spirits of these lost souls linger in the trees. You can find the body of Princess Utahna lay across the top as she herself became the mountain range while her head faces north. There are many versions of this story that have been passed down from families to families, but this story of Utahna remains to be one of the most well known of them all.
SOURCES
Book - Lost Landscapes by Linda Dunning, page 27 - 29
Website Article - utah.com, "Mt Timpanogos Summit via Timpooneke Trail {https://utah.com/hiking/mt-timpanogos}
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