Grizzly Peak towers of California Adventure. This mountain range forms the shape of a grizzly bear, growling up at the sky. In Walt Disney Imagineering lore, the early people inhabiting this land held grizzly bears in particularly high esteem, believing the native land embodied the bear’s traits: strength (from the granite hills), pride (from the tall and proud redwoods), and power (the roar from the waterfalls).
But there’s more to the backstory of this highest mountain. If you head to the entrance of Grizzly River Run, look at the garden beds on your left, near the lockers. You’ll see a painted rock with an inscription telling the legend of Grizzly Peak.
The rock reads:
The legend of Grizzly Peak
Long ago Ah-Ha-Ie the coyote met Oo-Soo-Ma-Te the grizzly bear on the top of the mountain. Seeing that Grizzly was a powerful being, Coyote asked him to always watch over and protect the land. Then one day people came and tried to chase Oo-Soo-Ma-Te from the mountain, but Grizzly was strong and held his ground. When Coyote saw the brave bear standing alone against so many men he turned Oo-Soo-Ma-Te into stone so he could never be driven away. To this day people claim they can hear the great bear spirit in the wind that roars through the caverns and trees of Grizzly Peak.
In most sections of the park, you can see the proud grizzly poking his head out from the trees. His spirit looms over California Adventure, protecting the land and the animals that inhabit it.