Legends of the Spanish Peaks tell of El Grandote, a young Mexican who left home to seek gold in the Wayatoyas, leaving behind Nana, his wife, and their unborn child; after dreaming that Nana had died, he returned to Mexico and found she had been murdered, then a second dream sent him back to Wayatoya, where Nana appeared to him in dreams holding their infant child, and it is said that they still walk night after night along the streams and lakes of the Wahatoyas. Another Spanish legend holds that a Spanish expedition found a rich vein of gold in the Spanish Peaks and forced local natives to mine it, then killed them before departing south over Cuchara Pass, only to be ambushed and killed along the Purgatory River, giving rise to the name Rio de las Animas Perdido en Purgatorio, River of Souls Lost in Purgatory. A third tale says that before the Rockies were mountains, when the earth was new, the devil emerged and chose the Cuchara Valley, climbed the steps of a tall dike, liked what he saw, and planned to take control, but the gods forbade him to remain, leaving only Devil's Stairsteps as the reminder.