Andru Kulas sued the city of Fort Collins and two Fort Collins Police Services officers, Kevin Park and Avery Hanzlicek, after the Aug. 28, 2021, incident caused lasting injury and psychological trauma, his attorney Sarah Schielke with the Loveland firm The Life & Liberty Law Office said in a news release.

According to his attorneys and police body camera footage of the encounter, Kulas was out drinking with friends when he encountered Park and Hanzlicek, who were responding to a call about someone on the roof of a nearby bar.

Kulas began to argue with the officers and refused to take a trespassing summons from Hanzlicek. As the confrontation escalated, the officers threw him to the ground, held him down and sprayed pepper spray into his eyes at a distance of 2 inches, according to his attorney.

“Kulas was left functionally blind, jailed for 36 hours – where video shows him collapsing off a bench and saying he could not breathe – and charged with obstruction and resisting arrest, charges that were both later dismissed,” Kulas’ attorneys wrote in the release.

Schielke also alleged that police department leaders interfered in an internal affairs investigation to clear Park.

A redacted copy of the internal affairs report shared by Kulas’ attorneys shows that while the document describes Park as exonerated, investigators said Park could have found other ways to issue the trespassing summons.

“The citation was for a low-level offense and there was no harm in allowing Mr. (Kulas) to leave the area. By using physical force when it was not necessary, it shines a negative light on police interactions with the public,” the investigator wrote. “The public trusts officers to make good decisions and (judgment) as to when to use physical force and to know when it is necessary and when it can be avoided.”

Fort Collins police officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Providing the sleek and efficient setup to cover long distances, yet also equipped with nubby skinny tires to travel off-pavement, gravel bikes created a groundswell of popularity about 10 years ago and are still having a moment, in part because the community feels more inclusive of all kinds of riders than road cycling or mountain biking.

In fact, outside of e-bikes, gravel biking is the fastest-growing type of two-wheel adventuring in Colorado, and a handful of event organizers have transformed their gravel races into weekend-long festivals. Here are three to pay attention to.

Steamboat Springs SBT GRVL; June 28

With the tagline “Bike Town USA,” it¶¶Òőap no surprise that Steamboat Springs is the unofficial epicenter of gravel riding in the Centennial State. Routt County is home to more than 600 miles of dirt roads, much of which cyclists jokingly refer to as “champagne gravel,” in reference to the .

In 2019, a group of riders decided it was high time to turn those miles into an event, which they called SBT GRVL. The goal was to offer inclusive gravel racing on stunning, scenic courses for all levels of riders.

“I’m a classic roadie that struggles on mountain bikes,” said Amy Charity, who cofounded SBT GRVL with Ken Benesh and the late Mark Satkiewicz. After taking a break from cycling, though, Charity took part in the Unbound Gravel 200-mile race in Kansas in 2018, and her love for the sport was renewed. “The challenge, the grit, the support out there brought me back to wanting to ride my bike again … I thought, we have so many insanely good gravel roads here, and they’re endless.”

Charity ran into Satkiewicz, a fellow avid cyclist, and shared her gravel experience. “We both said, ‘We should have a gravel race here.’ On a napkin, we mapped out SBT GRVL.” Then Satkiewicz called his buddies in the industry, while Chartity called her contacts in the pro racing scene. “We had 2,500 riders our first year. We sold out in six days,” Charity said.

SBT GRVL has since become one of the country’s most coveted gravel biking events, and the one-day ride — capped at 2,750 riders — is once again sold out this year. It kicks off June 28 with four course distances:108, 73, 53 and 25 miles. The competitive long course draws a stacked national field, with a $22,000 prize purse split among the fastest top five male and female finishers.

Previously a competitive road cyclist, Charity wanted to ensure that SBT GRVL provided participants with an invigorating but inclusive experience with every possible comfort. “I want coffee, Porta Potties all over the place. I want aid stations; I don’t want to carry food. I want to be taken care of when I finish. We put together all those things that stress you out, that the SBT could solve.

“Historically, racing is the opposite of inclusive. It¶¶Òőap intimidating,” she continued. “Your sunglasses need to be a certain type, socks need to be a certain height, and you need to know what you’re doing. What I found with gravel is your kit could be anything — baggies, Camelbacks. Anything goes. Just get to the end and have an adventure.”

The gravel rides are the culmination of a weekend-long festival that includes a downtown expo, a new trail running race, a toddler bike race, live music and more. “It¶¶Òőap a blast,” Charity said. “The idea is to set the tone. Many people compete for money, but we want to set the tone that this whole weekend is intended to be fun. That¶¶Òőap what we’re here for.”

Fort Collins FoCo Fondo; July 19

Pre-dating SBT GRVL, Fort Collins’ FoCo Fondo has grown every year since its inception in 2015. Offering about the most relaxed vibe of any high-ranking gravel event, the July 19 Fondo starts and finishes at New Belgium Brewing with five distinctive courses – the classic 118-miler that climbs almost 7,500 vertical feet through the mountains and around Red Feather Lakes west of town, as well as 100-, 60-, 32- and 12-mile courses that meander through surrounding farm country.

Co-founded by Fort Collins locals and former pro cyclists Whitney and Zack Allison, the Fondo is truly a welcoming event with BIPOC, non-binary and para race categories as well as childcare available during the race.

With the homestretch lined with beer handoffs, hose-sprays and a DIY bike park ride-through, the Fondo promises to be an “excellent adventure with as much guidance as you wish, pushing limits, keeping things fun and a little weird,” Whitney Allison said.

The weekend festival launches July 16 with the Bike and Lifestyle Expo at New Belgium Brewery, which also offers special tours and talks throughout the weekend. Registration remains open leading up to the event. It¶¶Òőap not out of the question for participants to show up on mountain bikes or even e-bikes.

The Salida76; Sept. 20

Newer to Colorado’s gravel scene, The Salida76 was masterminded by Shift Events, the nonprofit behind the famous Triple Bypass road ride from Evergreen to Avon. Since the Salida76’s inception in 2022, the organization has donated $65,000 to other nonprofits.

Definitely more of a grassroots undertaking, The Salida76 is comprised of two races, a 76-miler and a 76-kilometer course, the winners of which will be awarded “sweet swag” presented by “somebody’s kid,” according to the website.

This year, the 76 morphs into a full-blown weekend event – the Salida Bike Fest – with 1,300 participants in the 76 gravel races on Sept. 19 and the Banana Belt 35-mile mountain bike race on Sept. 20.

“We thought it’d be fun to play off the old dirt-bagging Colorado rider days of the late 70’s 
 think jean shorts and aviator glasses,” said Shift Events CEO/ED Jen Barbour.

That said, neither course is easy, the 76-miler climbing for nearly 7,000 feet and the 76K course for almost 5,000 feet, 3,500 feet for both courses thrown at riders over the first 13 miles.

“By having the golfer pay, it just limits your pool of people who want to access caddies more often,” said Tim Wimsatt, the director of the caddie program for the Colorado Golf Association, which owns and operates CommonGround.

This year is the first in which the CGA is covering 100% of a young caddie’s $60 base rate and $30 tip on an 18-hole round, called a loop. Those kids are part of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, a donation-funded training ground for students to grow within the game.

“Anybody can go out there one time and pay a $50 fee or whatever it is for a cart, but you won’t get that repeat customer,” Wimsatt said. “You’re pricing people out of the game.”

So far, it¶¶Òőap been working. In the 2024 season, Wimsatt¶¶Òőap first with the CGA after a career in education, caddies completed 700 loops between Memorial Day and Labor Day. In 2025, that number jumped slightly to 900.

But through early June this year, Wimsatt said CommonGround caddies are on pace to “blow past” 1,500 loops for the summer.

“We’re trying to create some demand for golfers to take kids, and the CGA feels like we can alleviate that tip for the golfer and make it more enjoyable,” he said. “We could have 100 caddies, but if no golfers take caddies it doesn’t really matter.”

The program starts with the basics, like pace, positioning and managing bags, clubs and covers before newbie caddies play a round. Their entire first season is spent on par 3s and back nines, Wimsatt said, before they can move up to a full 18 holes in their second season and beyond.

At CommonGround, caddies get two years to train before “moving up” to local private clubs like Denver Country Club, Lakewood Country Club, Cherry Hills Country Club or Columbine Country Club.

The CGA also runs caddie programs at several other private courses around the state – The Broadmoor, Fort Collins Country Club, Meridian Golf Club and at two courses in Grand Junction. Those ones, though, run four years, and only the $60 base rate is covered by the association. Tips at those clubs are at the discretion of members.

“The reason why we baked in the tip is because we really see it as a training program,” he said of CommonGround. “These other programs are, for lack of better terms, graduate programs where kids are going to go when they’re more advanced, more equipped, and they’re going to be there longer to develop.”

This year, the 166 caddies are the most in the program’s 14-year history. A third of those, 58, are at CommonGround, and The Broadmoor comes in second with 47 kids. Fort Collins has 27 and both Meridian and the Grand Junction courses hover around 10. Most start the summer after their eighth-grade year and caddie as a full-time job during vacation.

The program is financed through donations to the Colorado Golf Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the CGA. Wimsatt called it the foundation’s “flagship program” and said it raises between $600,000 and $700,000 annually. Program namesake and brothers George and Duffy Solich gave the seed money in 2012 to get it off the ground, and now the donor list sits at over 100.

The program also provides weekly leadership classes and field trips.

“It¶¶Òőap effectively $1,800 per kid, per summer. About 30 loops a kid times 60 bucks – we know what that is going to cost,” Wimsatt said. “So if we want to add more students or we want to do more loops, we can easily do the math problem.”

CommonGround caddie manager Jaxon Grunewald with a young caddie after a training loop. (Courtesy Jaxon Grunewald)
The CGA started the program, in part, to build up its pipeline of Evans Scholars to the University of Colorado Boulder. Both Soliches were recipients of that award, which is a full-tuition and housing scholarship for high-achieving caddies. Years ago, most of CU’s house was filled with out-of-staters, Wimsatt said.

Of the 840 kids that have gone through the academy in the past 14 years, 71 have received Evans Scholarships, Wimsatt said.

One of those is Jaxon Grunewald, who just wrapped up his first year in Boulder and returned to CommonGround as a caddie manager for the summer.

“It¶¶Òőap the best decision I’ve made in my life,” the Colorado native said of joining the Solich Academy.

He spent four years at the Aurora golf course before getting the prestigious scholarship. Back then, he was able to get gratuities from the myriad golfers he met over his 120 rounds going from green to green.

“I kind of feel bad for some of the other caddies missing out on potential tips,” he said. “But $90 per 18 holes is more than I was making, so I’m pretty jealous.”

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As a line crew chief for the city’s electric utility, he and his team are responsible for the infrastructure that delivers electricity to more than 79,000 customers with an advertised 99.99% reliability. He couldn’t do it without his neighbor.

Before Vance and his wife started their family, the woman next door made them an offer: Whenever they had kids, she’d take care of them. That arrangement now allows both parents to hold jobs, and it’s what keeps Vance showing up for a community that depends on him.

“It allows me to have a career,” he said. “It allows my wife to have a career. It’s vital to me.”

Colorado’s essential workers — including firefighters, utility workers and teachers — are critical to safe and healthy communities. But the childcare system that supports them is fragile, expensive and shrinking.

When it fails, it isn’t just parents and families who feel it. It affects classrooms that go understaffed, the wildfire crew that can’t be backfilled and the power that stays out a little longer.

Essential workers with families are being forced to leave their hometowns and even their jobs. Fourteen percent of children under 5 in Colorado are in families where one or both caretakers didn’t take a job or made significant changes to their job responsibilities because of childcare problems, according to the , a 50-state report of household data developed by the .

As Elliot Haspel, an author and early childhood policy expert, writes in his book “Building a community without childcare is building a community on sand.”

Two jobs, few choices

Hygiene might seem like an unlikely place to be impacted by Colorado’s childcare crisis. The unincorporated Boulder County community, west of Longmont, is home to an aging population and a handful of small shops.

Though the community itself has just a few hundred residents, the serves a population of 3,240 residents across 43 square miles.

The fire department used to be fully volunteer-based, and staff responded to calls from their own homes. But those people “are now all retired,” said Lukas Moller, a volunteer Hygiene firefighter.

Rising housing costs are affecting the fire department¶¶Òőap ability to recruit and retain staff. The district¶¶Òőap 60 personnel now primarily live outside of the area and come into Hygiene to work at the station, including Moller and his family, who own a home in Longmont.

“The town of Hygiene is not a place where it¶¶Òőap affordable to live,” Moller said.

The median home value in Boulder County is $756,300, which is 40% higher than the state median of $539,400 and 127% higher than the national median of $332,700, according to the .

Moller is a solutions engineer for , a software company, and his wife works in user experience at .

“If we both didn’t work,” he said, “we wouldn’t be able to pay the mortgage payment and afford everything else.”

Add the cost of childcare to the cost of housing, and life gets a lot more expensive. How much more expensive? Moller said the cost of care “eats up 30% to 40% of your take-home before mortgage, bills, food and all that.” His 3-year-old son attends daycare five days a week so he can hold down a job and be a volunteer firefighter.

Without childcare support, staff with families couldn’t respond to emergencies.

“There have been times where a battalion chief has called off, saying, ‘Hey, we need backfill at the station. Crews on a wildfire in Left Hand,’ ” Moller said, “and I can’t go backfill because I’m home alone, and I can’t bring my 3-year-old.”

The need for emergency responders is becoming more acute. In 2024, the Hygiene Fire Protection District responded to more than 300 calls for structure fires, emergency medical services, hazardous materials incidents, utility issues, wildland fires, car crashes and technical rescues.

Proper staffing is critical, especially during a severe drought. This year, the area had more red flag days by March than it usually has in an entire season, Moller said.

On top of his full-time job, Moller typically spends 48 to 72 hours per month responding to health and fire emergencies. It¶¶Òőap a lifelong dream, he said, and childcare is the only thing that makes it possible.

“This was something I always wanted to do. If our kid wasn’t in daycare, there’s no way I would’ve been able to pull that off with us both working full-time.”

The luck factor

The shortage of available childcare spots makes life even harder for those who serve their communities. In Colorado, licensed childcare facilities have the capacity to serve only two-thirds of children under age 6 in families where both parents work.

Consider Joey Angstman and his family. Angstman teaches biology and environmental science at .

“Just being with the students
 watching them become people and be curious gives me hope for the future,” he said.

Angstman and his wife, who is also a teacher, are now parents to a 7-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. Their son has attended an at-home daycare since he was 4 months old. The couple found the center through a friend.

“We were looking for childcare forever,” Angstman said. “We’d call people and nobody would respond to us.”

A coworker told his wife about a mutual contact who ran a daycare service. They called the provider immediately, and she “just happened to have an infant spot.”

The care experience for their son has been more consistent than it was for their daughter, who had to move centers a few times due to childcare center closures.

Private providers are in a precarious moment right now due to funding strains caused by , rising operational costs, and enrollment decreases tied to .

A 2026 showed that 25% of providers reported being at risk of closure this year or struggling to stay afloat.

Angstman was grateful to find somewhere for his daughter to land before she went into public school.

“We felt like just whatever we could find was kind of the best at that point,” he said.

Reliable childcare for their son gives both parents the chance to work and, as Angstman put it, to make an impact beyond their own home. For Greeley West, it means having the staff students need, which isn’t a guarantee: Colorado’s teacher shortage rate has nearly doubled since before the pandemic, according to .

Angstman sees his job as critical to equipping students with critical thinking about future policy and climate issues. His environmental science curriculum focuses heavily on preparing students for the challenges of a changing climate.

“This generation’s going to really have to be educated when it comes to understanding how climate change works and changes that need to be made,” he said.

The impossible choice

Vance, the line crew chief for Fort Collins Light and Power, and his wife are from northeast Colorado, near Fort Morgan. After having kids, they considered moving back to the area for cheaper care and housing, plus the family support available there.

“I pay more in daycare than I do my mortgage,” said Vance, who pays $2,200 a month for two kids, versus a $2,000 mortgage payment.

In Colorado’s 10 largest counties, families spend 18% to 25% of their monthly income on childcare, according to a report on licensed childcare from the Colorado-based, business-funded think tank . The federal government¶¶Òőap benchmark for affordable childcare is 7%.

Ultimately, the Vances decided to stay in Fort Collins. “It¶¶Òőap hard to leave this community and hard to leave my job,” he said.

Vance takes great pride in his work.

“We serve our community,” Vance said. “Without line workers and without power companies, a lot of things we take for granted would not be here: your lights, your refrigerators, your TVs, your communications.”

It¶¶Òőap a job Vance wouldn’t be able to do if their 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter weren’t taken care of by their neighbor, the at-home childcare provider.

For many middle-income families like the Vances, the cost of childcare has even affected how many children they plan to have.

“We’ve decided two is enough because if we were to throw a third one in, we’re like, ‘Oh geez, how could we afford that?’ That would be another $1,100 a month.”

The Vance family makes things work by delaying future costs, such as buying a larger home. They decided to wait and “stick it out where we’re at,” reassessing the possibility “once we can drop the daycare bill.”

Until then, Vance keeps showing up to work, helping keep the lights on for his neighbors.

CU hosts Texas Tech on October 3. Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby has no business inside Folsom Field, unless he’s bought a ticket. Presumably with blood money from a three-team parlay that hit a few days earlier.

Sorsby is 22. He’s young. We’ve all done dumb stuff when we’re invincible during those young, dumb isolated moments. Sorsby, though? He’s a repeat offender, dodging accountability as if it were a blitzing linebacker.

According to court documents, the Texas native placed at least 40 wagers on Indiana football while he was a member of the Hoosiers. He reportedly used others’ online sportsbook accounts to place bets totaling roughly $90,000 over four years. He gambled in Bloomington. He gambled as a member of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Basically, Brendan is the Art Schlichter of Generation Z. Remember Art? One of the great wasted careers in NFL history. Ohio State star. Drafted No. 4 overall by the Colts in 1982. Got the gambling bug as a teenager in small-town Ohio, an addiction that would ruin his life at almost every stop.

If only he had Sorsby’s lawyers. Or some friendly Texas judges.

On Monday, one of those justices, a man named Ken Curry, ruled that the NCAA would be causing “probable, imminent and irreparable injury” to Sorsby if it prevents him from playing this fall. Curry granted the young man a preliminary injunction that prevents NCAA brass from punishing Sorsby for violating — again, repeatedly — its rules on sports betting.

Now let’s get this out in the open first: The NCAA is a rotten, wage-fixing cartel that’s deserved, for years, to feel the wedgies that it’s been getting lately from the courts.

Just not this one. The NCAA was wrong to create the idea of a “student-athlete” as an indentured servant who would have to work sports as a full-time job while never being technically paid for that time and commitment.

Yet it was right to take a hard line on sports wagering, given the audience and devotion to its entertainment product. Much of the NCAA’s enforcement has been selective, arbitrary and occasionally silly. But if you don’t enforce competitive integrity, you might as well give up the ghost.

Now Texas Tech is haunting CU and the rest of the Buffs’ Big 12 peers. Oh, sure, Red Raiders officials will say they’re backing Sorsby to bring awareness and outreach to the cause of mental health, and how dare you shame an addict. Horse hockey. The Red Raiders are digging in their heels because said addict is a 6-foot-3 gunslinger who tossed 27 touchdowns at Cincy last year against just five interceptions while sporting a 140.8 lifetime passer rating as a collegian. If Brendan didn’t have NFL arm, Bubba Bootstraps would shrug and look the other way. Only now that it’s running with the blue bloods, Texas Tech wants back in the College Football Playoff again — and Sorsby is one of those keys that unlocks the penthouse.

“The injunction issued (Monday) regarding Brendan Sorsby is troubling,” new CU athletic director Fernando Lovo said in a prepared statement released earlier this week, “as his admitted actions are a clear violation of long-held standards of integrity in college athletics … this injunction is a clear affront to the competitive principles that have been the foundation of college sports for more than a century. We will continue to engage with the Big 12 Conference and our peers on this issue.”

Why? Tech didn’t consult with any of you when it came to picking up Sorsby, skeletons and all. Last July, the Red Raiders signed a five-star lineman, Felix Ojo, for what was reportedly a three-year, fully-guaranteed $5.1-million contract. Context: The No. 11 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft is slotted to make $5.26 million this fall.

If I’m Lovo, I don’t wait around for Big 12 commissioner Brent Yormark to grow a spine. I cancel anything I’ve got scheduled with Texas Tech, in all sports, until Sorsby is off the roster.

Then I call CSU athletic director John Weber.

How’s this for a twist in the tale? Instead of playing a dirty, tainted Red Raiders squad on Oct. 3, the Buffs should host rival CSU on Oct. 10. Bring back the Rocky Mountain Showdown three years early.

CU keeps that home game — now with potentially a bigger home gate, to boot. New CSU coach Jim Mora gets to tangle with his old pal Deion Sanders and gets a chance to shock the world, and put his stamp on the Front Range, in Year 1.

Before you laugh, look at the calendar. CU and CSU both have concurrent bye weeks on Oct. 10. The Buffs host Utah on Oct. 17. CSU visits Texas State on Oct. 15.

Now, granted, that’s a lousy turnaround for the Rams, given a Thursday nighter on the road. Ah, but lookie here: The Bobcats don’t play a game between Oct. 16 and Oct. 24. As recently as March, Texas State athletics presented the CSU tilt as a flexible date, Surely, CBS Sports Network can find something else to fill that prime-time Thursday night window.

Why not here? Why not now? The Buffs and Rams wrapped up a home-and-home, two-year mini-series in ’23 and ’24 that made Colorado the center of the college football universe. Studio shows from ESPN and FOX were tripping all over themselves for Front Range real estate. The games themselves featured biting coach-on-coach smack talk, sellout crowds and epic performances (Shedeur Sanders in ’23; Travis Hunter in ’24).

Which is why it’s a shame that there isn’t another CU-CSU football game on the docket until September 15, 2029, in Fort Collins. That’s a five-year gap — which would be the longest in the history of the rivalry since it was renewed in 1983. The Buffs and Rams have tussled 34 times in the last 43 years, with CU winning 26 of the matchups.

It’s too good, too juicy, to keep mothballed in the attic for this long. If activist judges are going to burn college football to the ground, you might as well dance in the ashes with the time it’s got left.

The sedan was traveling northbound on I-25 on May 30, southeast of Fort Collins, and then took an exit as deputies arrived. The car continued driving faster than 100 mph and cut its lights to avoid detection. Deputies then saw the sedan run a red light near Terry Lake and pulled it over. The driver and a passenger were both arrested.

Deputies discovered that the car had been “extensively modified with systems designed to evade law enforcement,” including radar detectors and jammers, a device used to cover the car’s license plate, and a “passenger binocular system for spotting cops.” Deputies also found amphetamines in the car.

The equipment, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said, are commonly used in “cannonball runs,” an underground contest in which participants race to see how quickly they can drive from one American coast to the other.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment Monday afternoon.

Hail roughly 1 inch in size fell in the metro area, said Greg Heavener, an NWS meteorologist. The hailstones grew in size as the storm moved east, he said, and were potentially as large as baseballs. He said NWS had not received any reports of significant damage from the storm or hail but were still monitoring it.

Update 4:35 p.m.: The emergency sirens that echoed around Denver late Monday afternoon were “sounded inadvertently,” according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management.

“There is no threat of destructive weather to Denver at this time,” the department said.

City spokesman Jon Ewing said the emergency management office would release a more detailed statement later Monday.

Update 4:04 p.m.: The National Weather Service issued another severe thunderstorm warning for Parker, Elizabeth and Franktown that is in effect until 4:45 p.m. Monday.

The storm could bring half-dollar-sized hail and winds of up to 60 mph, according to forecasters. A tornado is also possible.

Update 3:57 p.m.: National Weather Service forecasters issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Denver International Airport, Commerce City and Thornton that are in effect until 4:30 p.m. Monday.

The storm could bring half-dollar-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph, according to the . A tornado also is possible.

A separate in effect until 4:15 p.m. for Evergreen, Golden and Kittredge warns of quarter-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph.

Update 3:25 p.m.: National Weather Service forecasters for Castle Pines, Centennial, Denver, Lakewood, Parker and Thornton that are in effect until 4 p.m. Monday.

Quarter-sized hail and 60 mph winds will be possible, warnings.

Update 2:45 p.m.: A tornado watch has been issued for northeastern Colorado and parts of Kansas and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service.

The warning area covers Colorado’s Interstate 25 corridor from the Wyoming border south to Colorado Springs, which includes the Denver area, as well as the Eastern Plains, according to the weather service.

Tornados, up to softball-sized hail and damaging wind gusts up to 75 mph will be possible until the watch expires at 9 p.m. Monday, forecasters said.

Original story: Large hail may be headed back to Denver on Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

and hail larger than 2 inches to hit the metro area and north to Fort Collins. The storms are expected to start at around 2 p.m. and intensify as they move into the Eastern Plains throughout the evening, said Abby Pettett, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder. For the area east of downtown Denver and along the I-70 corridor, hail is forecast to surpass 3.5 inches in size.

The hail could do “immense damage,” Pettett said. said it had “high confidence” in its forecast and projected that hail could be as large as 4.5 inches further east.

“Right now, the main threat is that large to very large hail,” Pettett continued. “However, there is also potential for very strong winds and also tornadoes.”

To stay safe from falling hail, the weather service recommends staying indoors, closing any shades or blinds, and otherwise staying away from windows. Drivers should stay in their car and pull over if possible while keeping their back to the windows. Motorists should not pull over beneath underpasses.

The forecast comes a week after a hail storm swept through the Denver area, delaying hundreds of flights at Denver International Airport.

Despite our dry environment, you can raise tropical plants with the proper care and conditions.

When considering which plants to grow in your Colorado garden, a lemon tree may not be the first that comes to mind. But Troy Cobb, greenhouse manager at Fort Collins Nursery, said citrus and other fruiting tropical plants can actually thrive in our dry conditions.

All it takes is the right care, at the right time.

For instance, these heat-loving plants should be kept inside during Colorado winters, with access to ample sunlight.

“When you’re growing them indoors, you need a south window or a west window,” Cobb said. “They’re going to want as much light as they can get.”

As spring sets in and daytime temperatures warm, it¶¶Òőap safe to put the citrus plant outside, as long as you slowly ease it into full sun and bring the plant back inside each night.

“Once the night temperatures in the spring are staying consistently at about 40 (degrees) or more, it can stay outside,” Cobb said.

A citrus plant is happiest when it’s outside in the summer, enjoying the season’s strong light and hot temperatures. A plant that¶¶Òőap been outside all summer will also be better suited to withstand the transition into autumn, making it stronger overall.

“In the late summer and early fall, they’re starting to get used to the big swings in day-to-night temperatures,” Cobb said.

Eventually, when the cold dips below 40 degrees again, it’ll be time to bring the plant back indoors. However, to avoid transferring problems to your other houseplants during this period, quarantine the citrus and watch for pests. Keep an especially watchful eye out for spider mites, which tend to attack citrus in the winter when our indoor plants are dry.

Pot size and soil are additional considerations when growing citrus, because the top of the plant grows about three times as fast as the roots. Planting a tree in a pot that¶¶Òőap too big, or in soil that¶¶Òőap too heavy, can cause slow-growing roots to drown.

“It’s going to be in that (original) pot for probably three to five years before it will need to go to another pot, because the roots just grow that slowly,” Cobb said.

When you eventually move your citrus to a new pot, remember that the sun is a tropical plant¶¶Òőap best friend. “Every plant’s going to go through transplant shock, and the more light that the plant has throughout the day, the faster it will bounce back.”

Cobb said every citrus fruit is equally easy to grow in Colorado — except for calamansi (often known as calamondin), a lime that turns orange and is even more user-friendly than lemons. He has also had success growing mangoes, pineapple guavas and olives in Colorado. He has harvested avocados, too, though these trees need to be quite mature before they produce fruit. Passion fruit is another relatively easy plant to maintain, but as an aggressive-growing vine, it requires ample space.

Cacao is at the top of the list of tropical plants that Cobb doesn’t recommend. It simply craves too much humidity. It¶¶Òőap also possible to grow miracle fruit, a plant that gets its name from berries that make sour foods taste sweet, though it’s highly susceptible to mealy bugs, another common pest.

Perhaps the greatest perk to growing citrus is that it can start producing fruit when the plant is still young. Fort Collins Nursery sells citrus in an eight-inch pot — their smallest fruiting size — and yields will only continue to increase with time.

“The bigger the plant gets, the more energy it can support, and the more fruit it can make,” Cobb said.

While a citrus plant is technically self-fertile when outside, bees still play an important role in pollination, which ensures a fruiting plant. If you’re growing a lemon or lime tree indoors, there’s no shame in assuming that responsibility yourself.

“Get a little paintbrush, kind of swirl it around inside the flower, and go from flower to flower to pick up pollen and move it into the next one,” Cobb said. “You’ll get a better yield if you actually act like a bee.”

Michelle Polizzi is a freelance travel, culture and lifestyle writer based in Denver.

Producers of these multi-artist, music discovery events have seen record-high costs and ticket prices for fans, which have led to cratering sales and, in some cases, outright closures. Some beloved events have already disappeared from the calendar this summer — see Grand Junction’s Country Jam Colorado, which is absent in 2026 despite a solid, 33-year run.

But even as that and other such as Pitchfork Music Festival have disappeared, been paused, or faced an alarming decline in ticket sales, like Coachella did in 2024, a new festival scene is rising in Colorado.

This summer sees the first version of the DIY Blucifer’s First Rodeo, while Trinidad’s ambitious Fancy Spider is back for Year No. 2. Most of Colorado’s marquee fests have also managed to hold on year after year, despite major pandemic disruptions; see also Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Rockygrass, and Bravo! Vail Music Festival. And events such as Fort Collins’ jam-packed, highly diverse and smoothly run have even, against the odds, grown.

That’s partly because small fests are becoming both more attractive to music fans and easier to put on for producers, especially in this era of $5 per-gallon gas and creeping inflation. Big fests tend to have big prices, due to their need to pay for both the household names and the infrastructure, ranging from site rentals to insurance and security guards. Passes to at Snowmass Town Park, for example, start at $224 for a single day, with three listed acts per date (Benson Boone, Tim McGraw and Red Clay Strays are overall headliners). A full-fest pass starts at $400.

With 3 acts per day, that comes out to about $75 per act. By contrast, multi-stage fests offer performances that overlap so you’re not likely not likely to see all of them, but you’re also not likely to get bored. The annual , Sept. 11-12 at the National Western Center, charges $165 per day but offers more than two dozen acts including Kygo, Troyboi, TiĂ«sto and Sidepiece. (It’s the same venue where the Unhinged metal-and-tattoo festival announced — and then canceled — its inaugural event last year.)

It’s not just about the math, of course, as there are no extra points for seeing the most acts — unless that’s your thing — or saving the most money. The idea is to be joyously surrounded by music, not constantly clocking your journey like a fitness app. To wit: in Snowmass, home of the aforementioned JAS Aspen Labor Day Experience, you can find the free Mountainside Music Festival, June 11-13 on the Fanny Hill (ski hill) Stage, “featuring folk, pop, country and alternative acts performing against the destination’s stunning vista backdrop,” organizers said. It’s hard to beat that deal if you’re looking for stunning mountain scenery.

In that spirit, here are five smaller, more affordable summer music festivals on the Front Range that offer an alternative to big events — and possibly the most bang for your buck.

Indiewood Street Festival

Denver’s nonprofit Swallow Hill Music debuted this outdoor event last year in a street-party format with a focus on local indies such as Barbara and Rootbeer Richie & the Reveille. It sold out, encouraging another version in Englewood with national and local acts Sam Burchfield, Bluebook, the Animeros, the Crooked Rugs and Frail Talk. Tickets for the event at South Broadway and West Hampden (just north of Highway 285 in Englewood) are $20-$25, with reduced prices for kids 4-12. Free for kids under 3. (June 6; )

The UMS and Blucifer’s First Rodeo

One weekend, two major local music festivals. That’s the deal with the overlapping Underground Music Showcase and upstart Blucifer’s First Rodeo. The UMS is Denver’s long-running indie music fest that’s being rebooted in the RiNo Arts District, July 24-26 at various venues, after closing up shop on South Broadway last year. It features more than 200 shows for a full-fest price of $110, which is a killer deal by any standard, and national headliners such as 54 Ultra, slenderbodies, Goldie Boutilier, Kaash Paige, Tommy Newport, Charlotte Sands, MAVI, Twin Shadow, King Mala, Deb Never, The Droptines and Bad Nerves. Tickets and a full lineup are available at .

This is a pivotal debut for the event in RiNo, whose Business Improvement District is supporting it with a $1 million investment over the next few years. With 160 local bands on tap, it’s a mostly-Denver music fest that continues the event’s 25-year legacy of supporting the music scene here.

and with a no-less-impressive local lineup, is the July 23-26 event Blucifer’s Favorite Rodeo, a brand new music-fest that’s filling The UMS hole on South Broadway and elsewhere. With another 160 Front Range bands at multiple independent venues, it’s a great excuse to discover and celebrate Denver acts such as Pink Hawks, Colfax Speed Queen, and Team Nonexistent. All-access passes ($69) are already sold out, but you can buy 2-day wristbands for the South Broadway-centric dates for $59 (covering 150 acts at 15 or so venues) and buy a DIY-pass (including all-ages shows and Saturday’s D3 satellite festival) for $39. ()

The funny thing? Some metro area acts are playing both, given that artists would be crazy to turn down a paying gig at a music-discovery event, even if it appears to be competing with another one. (There are no hard feelings from either fest, organizers have told The Denver Post). Can both survive, or even thrive? We’ll find out next month.

Youth on Record Block Party and Youth Music Festival

Can’t get enough local music? Check out the Youth on Record Block Party, which is operated by the so-named student music-education nonprofit. The 12th annual event is set to return Sept. 19, outside at Youth on Record (1301 W. 10th Ave. in Denver), with a free, all-ages celebration of local culture. That includes “hundreds of all-ages music lovers each year for a day-long festival,” organizers said. “Join us for powerful performances from emerging artists, food trucks, community vendors, and free activities.” Lineup to come. Learn more about the all-ages event at .

Mountain Music Festival

Evergreen is again hosting this student-run fest with some celebrity shine on its headliner, and a bevy of performers that reinforce Colorado’s identity as a roots-music haven. This year features The Bacon Brothers — longtime actor Kevin and sibling/Emmy-winning composer Michael — with performances from Alex Hagar, Grady and the Hootin’ Bandits, Michael Morrow and the Culprits, Christie Huff, and Neoni. The one-day event, presented by the Wooden Hawk Foundation, takes place at Buchanan Field (32003 Ellingwood Trail in Evergreen). Tickets range from $32.46 (early bird) to $42.85 for adults, $10 for youth 6-18, and free for 5 and under. (Aug. 16, )

Fancy Spider Music Fest

Downtown Trinidad’s walkable Fancy Spider Music Fest is run by some folks in the know — founders Curtis Wallach and Suzanne Magnuson also own and operate the Trinidad Lounge, and Wallach co-owns Denver’s legendary Hi-Dive — and it’s expanding in its second year. Expect indoor and open-air shows from more than 50 local and regional acts in diverse genres, organizers said, from punk and hip hop to folk, metal and jazz. Tickets for the event, taking place across various venues in this southern Colorado border town, are $100 for full-fest access. Single-day passes, if capacity allows, and other options will go on sale later. (Oct. 9-11, )

general manager Sal Pace also said in an interview Tuesday that his agency is planning sports-fan-friendly train stops and scheduling near the new Denver Summit soccer stadium off South Broadway, the University of Colorado stadium in Boulder, the Colorado State University stadium in Fort Collins, and the  Air Force Academy stadium north of Colorado Springs.

All depends on voters approving a tax hike of around 4 cents on a $10 purchase to help finance passenger rail service. District officials planned to decide by August whether to place a measure on the November election ballots. The Broncos, Summit, and other “special event” stops also require agreements with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railway companies, owners of the tracks.

Broncos officials first proposed a stop at their new stadium and have been negotiating with state rail officials. A $332 million three-trip-a-day passenger rail “starter service” linking Denver Union Station with Boulder and Fort Collins is scheduled to start in 2029. If voters approve, the second-phase rail service running south from Denver — past the Broncos and Summit stadiums — to Colorado Springs and Pueblo would start in 2032, Pace said. The district would pay $5 million to install the Broncos stadium stop platform, while costs for a station hall and sidewalks not directly related to transportation would fall to the Broncos, he said.

“We as a state have said we want our sports teams to be integrated into the urban environments. Thank God for that,” Pace said, comparing Colorado sports stadiums with those built elsewhere in outlying suburban areas with space for gigantic parking lots.

“You don’t have to worry about congestion, driving, or parking. You could have a couple of beers and be safe – and get back home with fellow Broncos fans. This is going to get people off roads, make our roads safer, and be a transportation benefit.”

Separate talks with Denver Summit and city transportation and infrastructure officials are in progress toward putting a stop near the new soccer stadium, Pace said. District officials are also working on agreements to adjust train schedules to serve crowds at the stops near stadiums in Boulder and Fort Collins. “We are excited about both. And we have had talks with the U.S. Air Force Academy about a stop” serving crowds for football and other special events in that area north of Colorado Springs.

At the proposed new Broncos stadium, and Front Range rail officials had considered a track spur so that trains could park during games and be ready to handle passenger surges. That would have cost tens of millions of dollars, Pace said. Front Range train schedules instead will be adjusted to serve crowds at major events, he said.

Broncos officials on Tuesday confirmed their interest in a train stop at their stadium, which they plan to open in 2031, with a retractable roof and, eventually, surrounding housing and commercial development spanning 150 acres. Regional Transportation District light rail trains already run along the east side of the 58-acre Burnham Yard property.