The second weekend of June saw large, jubilant crowds occupy the grounds of the Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs to celebrate the 14th annual Feast of Saint Arnold and spend a few hours sampling Colorado beer, wine and various spirits while supporting Westside CARES.

The festival occupied the better part of Saturday afternoon and provided festival goers the chance to try out a number of beverages from more than 30 different Colorado breweries, wineries and distilleries (the majority of which are local to the Pikes Peak region); the festival also included live music, food options and local vendors.

Proceeds from the event are largely directed towards Westside CARES, with a smaller percentage going to charities determined by the Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church.

Over the past several years, the festival committee reports having donated hundreds-of-thousands of dollars towards Westside CARES.

The organizing committee is run by an all volunteer team and all of the breweries, distilleries, wineries, etc. donated their time and product during the event.

For additional information on the Feast of Saint Arnold, click here.

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The Feast of Saint Arnold, an enormous, family-friendly, beer festival, is right around the corner; the 14th annual event is set for June 13 and will continue its mission of supporting Westside CARES.

Proceeds from the event are largely used to support Westside CARES; over the course of its run, the Feast of Saint Arnold has contributed hundreds-of-thousands of dollars towards the non-profit, which is dedicated towards supporting community members in need of assistance.

The event is held at the Chapel of Our Saviour Episcopal Church, which is located near The Broadmoor, and runs from 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 13.

Tickets are priced at $50 online ($55 with fees), or $60 at the gate. Organizers suggest purchasing tickets online to ensure access to the event and avoid long lines.

If you're looking for a way to participate ahead of time, you can join The Pilgrimage of Pints, a self-guided brewery/distillery tour that organizers hope will break locals out of their normal routines.

If you visit and purchase beverages from 15 businesses, you can enter the Feast of Saint Arnold an hour before general admission and your ticket price comes down to only $30. To register for the Pilgrimage of Pints, click here.

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For nearly 30 years (28 to be exact), Art on the Streets has organized the placement of hundreds of temporary pieces of public art around Downtown Colorado Springs during the spring.

2026 followed the trend, with new murals and sculptures taking up residence Downtown until next May.

Organized by Downtown Ventures and described as a program of the Downtown Creative District, Art on the Streets brings approximately a dozen, temporary pieces of public art to the (Downtown) area each year.

This year, more than 130 artists applied to the program, and 12 were chosen to bring their work to Colorado Springs, six of those are Colorado residents.

All of these pieces of public art will stay in place (at least) through the year until the next round of artwork is installed in May, 2027.

If you're interested in learning about the new installations (or seeing an archive of the previous installations, some of which have stuck around) , finding out about walking tours, or doing a self-guided audio tour, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the John May Museum Center, a space stacked with around 7,000 insect and arachnid specimens.

Now celebrating 75 years of family-owned operations, the John May Museum Center is more widely known as the Bug Museum.

"...that's what it is," commented Diana Fruh, co-director and a fourth-generation family member operating the nonprofit. "It's the bug museum."

Within the exhibit, visitors will find rows upon rows of carefully organized and preserved moths, tarantulas, stick insects, beetles and so much more.

"We have locusts. There's scorpions. There's spiders, you know, beetles that look as if they have been spray-painted," said Fruh. " Truly like you would look at them and say, 'how in the world could that exist in the wild?'"

It's the sort of place where you can meander and take your time viewing everything on display, there's no time-limit; in fact, visitors are encouraged to pack a lunch and enjoy a picnic outside when they're finished enjoying the exhibit.

"You can always rediscover something new," added Fruh. "Even if you have looked at this collection for decades."

The Museum operates from the start of May to the start of October and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; museum admission costs $14 per adult, $11 per child (ages six to 12), and children five can visit free with their families.

For additional information, click here.

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For Denver local Coltin Wilde, flying kites is less of a hobby and more of a pursuit; if the wind is just so, this avid collector can be found populating the skies of public parks with kites that range in size from just a couple of feet across to those that measure more than 40 feet in length.

"I started kites when I was pretty young," commented Wilde, "came from a big family, so we were stretching our dollars. Parents had some kites for us. It was something free. We always brought a picnic out to the park, and that was kind of the start of getting into kites."

Since he was first introduced to the wide world of wind-catching contraptions, Wilde has amassed quite the collection of kites, "I've got a lot, if you think about what a lot is and add a lot on top of that, that's probably closer to what I have."

It's the type of collection that doesn't gather dust.

"One of the things that I absolutely love, which is, I would say, even more enjoyment than what I enjoy, is when I fly a kite and it just slows down [a] park for a little bit," said Wilde.

It's that sort of interaction that Wilde hopes to bring to the town of San Luis; this past year, he purchased some property in the valley and wondered about what he could contribute to the area.

The answer he landed upon (unsurprisingly) involved flying kites.

"It's just been a big part of my life, and I have just enjoyed kites so much when I go to the festivals, and I always thought it would be cool to start a brand new festival."

So he made some calls, and pitched his idea to the town of San Luis, "...and we're all in. Town's in. I'm in. Hopefully we'll put on a good show and everybody will have a good time."

Coltin's plan is to bring down a large number of kites and put on quite the sky-bound spectacular; of course, any and all guests are welcomed (and encouraged) to bring and fly their own kites as well.

Town government has set the kite festival for June 6th at the baseball field on the east side of San Luis and plans to host vendors, food trucks, live music, kite flying (of course), and even a community softball game.

"We'll do our best," added Coltin, "and hopefully year after year, if we keep on doing this, we'll have some good years, and I'm sure we'll have some where maybe the wind's a little too much or not enough, but we're all going to have a good time no matter what, because we're together."

For additional information and updates regarding the upcoming festival in San Luis, click here.

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MESA COUNTY, Colo. In a single-file line, a group of people walk up a forested hillside, pushing past branches and stepping over fallen trees to reach a spot in the woods devoid of wildlife but full of signs that they had traveled through it.

Like ghosts, those signs tell a story of the past for those willing to look closely enough.

Bark ripped from a small tree. A rodent skull. Dirt gently pushed into a small pile. A series of meandering coyote tracks. Bear scat near a grass bed.

The range riders quietly walk between each clue under the afternoon sun, crouching to examine each one closely. It's their job to make sense of the puzzle pieces, envision the full picture of what's happening on the landscape and apply it to range riding. If a threat to livestock is sticking around, they are tasked with reporting their findings back to the producers.

And while this day was just a test, the real thing was right around the corner.

In late April, Denver7 was invited to experience the training for the Colorado Range Rider Program first-hand, and traveled to Mesa County to see how the state is training range riders to not only protect livestock from wolves, but to truly learn the language of the land.

WATCH: In the video below, watch our behind-the-scenes reporting on why this program came about and what kind of training the riders underwent.

The program may exist because of the wolves, but its not only for them.

Following two and a half years of preparations, gray wolves hit the ground in Colorado for the first round of reintroductions in December 2023 and a second in January 2025.

Despite some mitigation efforts, the spring and summer of 2024 saw a lengthy list of wolf depredations sometimes with multiples a week in Grand, Jackson and Routt counties. Ranchers called for more and better resources.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) says this program is proof they heard the feedback.

"One of the big things that they identified was the need for a range rider program, as well as just expanded capacity on CPWs side to be able to respond to conflict, as well as proactively get out there to help producers," said Luke Perkins, CPW statewide public information officer. "So that came in the form of our wildlife damage specialists, as well as the range rider program the Colorado Range Rider program that was stood up last year."

While the program launched in the wake of the wolf reintroductions, range riding has many other facets, he explained.

"There's so much other wildlife out there that these range riders might encounter and need to be aware of so that they can assist the producers that they're working with," Perkins said.

At the start of the inaugural year of the Colorado Range Rider Program in 2025, CPW brought on 11 riders. They ended the season with eight in total, they rode almost 15,000 miles over 4,000 hours for 34 different livestock producers, the agency reported. The Colorado Department of Agriculture also has its own range riders and ranchers are welcome to hire their own.

"This year, we're going to have 15 riders, seven of which are returning from last season, which is a really great retention rate," Perkins said.

Through the final week of April, the range riders met in Grand Junction for formal training. It was broken up into three days in the classroom and two days out at The High Lonesome Ranch, off the Roan Plateau in Mesa County, for in-the-field practice. Denver7 joined for the latter.

Travis Brooks, general manager of the ranch, offered up the property as the training grounds in both 2025 and 2026.

"Programs like this, the solution-based type programs we're happy to help foster and help build," he said. "So, I think that's our biggest role right now. Just providing the partnership that these guys need to hold this kind of workshop here."

Staff at the 300-square-mile ranch are already working toward a better future with regenerative ranching practices to prioritize environmental health. Supporting range riders during their training is another way they hope to be part of the solution.

"(The riders) are going to have the opportunity to see range conditions, body conditions on cows, wildlife movements. They're going to be the eyes, ears and presence on the landscape," Brooks said. "And I think producers will reap benefits from that presence."

The training itself was simple. Its leaders, including senior tracker Casey McFarland with the South African nonprofit Cyber Tracker Conservation, scoured an area for signs an animal had been there, stuck a small flag in the ground with a number and then the riders were invited to piece clues together.

To squeeze out every ounce of the exercise though, their detective work had to be solo. And so the men and women quietly stepped up to each of the signs and wrote down their answers. Was the print canine or feline? Dog or coyote? Were those tracks from a deer or young elk? Once all answers were recorded, McFarland gathered the group together and they walked through the answers.

The riders' accuracy would determine a final score, and therefore their level of range riding at the end of the day Friday.

All these folks have been tasked with a very challenging job, and that is to be out on the landscape and just trying to keep track of a lot of very complex scenarios, McFarland told Denver7. And one of the tools that they have at their disposal is to be able to just try to read sign of all different kinds of animals across the landscape.

That includes not only which animal made which print or left which scat, but how many animals were there, if they were a juvenile or adult, if prints belonged to a front foot or hind foot, and if they were walking, trotting or running and why, among many other factors.

There is plenty of evidence around a landscape of wildlife, but without proper training, humans almost always miss it, McFarland explained. Its more than just tracking wolf or mountain lion prints, he said. Its learning how to track, well, anything.

That's what it boils down to, McFarland said.

Over nearly 20 years, he has led these trainings around the world.

There's something to it having people see a story come to life for the first time in front of them, and it is so human, he said. And just makes me happy, because it's making other people happy. People just get jazzed about this stuff. It definitely keeps the fire going.

Among the eight range riders returning to the program from 2025 is Emma Baker out of Eagle County. She is one of three women riding this year for CPWs program.

A childhood of playing outside and learning the roles on a farm set her up for a degree in conservation biology.

I was kind of always interested in being able to make agriculture and conservation work in concert more, she explained.

That led her to human-wildlife conflict studies and, eventually, Colorados range riding program.

A lot of people think it's just chasing wolves all the time, which in reality, it's not, Baker told Denver7. It's a lot more about the day to day of getting to know your producer's livestock, and their patterns I want to keep the livestock safe, so I don't let these producers down that's kind of my main thought.

Despite rough terrain, dangerous weather and a controversial predator at the center of the program, she unquestionably loves the job. Its one of the few places where she can clear her mind, she explained.

All the challenges are so good and so rewarding to me to try to work through, Baker said. I enjoy pretty much every aspect of it. I think sometimes, the long days the very long days do get hard, and the working overnight for weeks at a time does get hard. But I, honestly, I really love it.

Including through the heartache of finding a wolfs kill on the ranch.

Even with all the training in the world and riders on the landscape, depredations will still happen, she explained. Its not a perfect science and she knew that the producers livelihood was directly affected by the loss.

But Colorado's program is moving in the right direction and working to better itself. It's only in its second year and while it may have a long way to go, Baker said CPW took riders feedback from 2025 and applied it to this years training.

I believe in it, and I think the more we work at it, and the more we learn just through doing, I think it'll continue to get better, and hopefully it'll continue to get better, and hopefully we continue to improve and reduce conflict as much as possible, she said. It's my favorite job I've ever had.

The range riding season typically runs May through October in Colorado, meaning those 15 riders are ready for deployment or already deployed. Per CPW's Wolf-Livestock Conflict Minimization Program Guide, they will ride four to five days a week and up to 22 days per month during that season.

It all depends on wolf activity and producers' needs.

Leading up to last winter, producers in southwest Colorado were prepping to be the drop-off point for a third round of wolf reintroductions, but that never ended up happening. In October, the Trump administration told Colorado to stop reintroducing wolves from Canada and instead rely on northern Rocky Mountain states for the reintroduction effort. But while Canada was prepared to offer up 10-15 wolves, most of the Rocky Mountain states rejected the request, leaving Colorado without a source for the animals.

In the third week of January 2026, CPW announced this year's reintroduction wasn't in the cards.

It was a pause that the Colorado Cattlemen's Association called "a constructive step," while the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project told Denver7 via email the decision meant the USFWS had "gone back on their commitment to Colorado and their legal obligation to the Endangered Species Act."

Colorado is still planning on releasing wolves during the winter of 2026-2027, but exact details have not yet been ironed out. Laura Clellan, CPWs acting director, said in a statement that her agency will continue to meet with producers and other stakeholders, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to explore how to maximize the restoration effort next winter while protecting both livestock and wolves.

For now, the riders are ready to go where the wolves take them.

Its a position that McFarland admires.

I'm very inspired by all these individuals, just for who they are, what they're bringing to the table, and their skillsets, he said. What's most important is that we just keep at it. They got a big job, and we're all rooting for them.

The Scripps News Group has been following Colorado's wolf reintroduction program since the very beginning, and you can explore all of that reporting in the timeline below, which starts with our most recent story.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is Phelan Gardens.

Opening its doors in 1981, this garden-based business features anything and everything necessary to kick-start your green thumb.

"So Phelan Gardens is a greenhouse, [and] a nursery," commented MJ Jones, the happenings coordinator for the business, "we sell houseplants, we sell edible plants, we've got perennials, shrubs, flowers; you name it, we probably have it if it will grow here in Colorado Springs."

Additionally, the plant-centric organization also organizes and regularly hosts a wide variety of educational courses and workshops that help to set gardeners up for success.

"We want to hit all of the aspects for well-rounded gardening and horticulture care," stated Jones.

Because there are several types of classes, there are also several price points for participation; however, beginning and informational classes are typically priced at $18.00 - $20.00, and programming directed towards children is often priced lower than that.

"We really want folks to come in," added Jones, "just learn with us and build some skills that they feel confident they can take a plant out the door and it's going to thrive with them at a very reasonable price point."

If you want to see the variety of classes that have been offered at Phelan Gardens over the past few years and get an idea of what's on the horizon, follow this link (additional classes to be added mid/late May).

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If you've seen a multi-hued butterfly sculpture around Colorado Springs, there's a good chance it was constructed and painted as a part of an annual fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs known as the Wings of Change.

"For nearly 20 years," stated club president, Trevor Dierdorff, "Wings of Change has been the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs' primary fundraiser in which we're able to provide funding for projects with School District 11, (The) Salvation Army, and this year, one of our focus projects has been doing a renovation of the Acacia Park band shell."

Each spring, the Downtown-based club has an open call for colorful and creative designs that will end up being featured on a variety of butterfly and dragonfly sculptures; during this time-frame, local artists can visit the Wings of Change website to submit their concepts.

This year, the deadline to submit design concepts is May 15; artists can select between submitting concepts for "garden-sized" butterflies and dragonflies (with wingspans of 45" and 40" respectively) or petite butterflies and dragonflies (with wingspans of 9" each).

Below is a timetable of when the project will come to life:

According to the Wings of Change artist application, the larger sculptures, just over two-dozen in total, will stay on display at the Pioneers Museum during September before being auctioned off, along with the smaller sculptures, on October 3 during a celebration at Hotel Polaris.

According to the Rotary Club, there have been some years where the event has raised more than $100,000.

"We are looking to have dozens of artists participate again and help create this beautiful artwork that you see all over our city," said Dierdorff.

For additional information on the Wings of Change, click here.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the recurring, monthly event (or, truly, a series of events) known as First Fridays in Downtown Colorado Springs.

First Fridays (named due to their placement on the first Friday of each month) see a large number of galleries, creative spaces, and other small businesses presenting new art exhibitions, hosting live music, providing space for artist meet-and-greets, and holding a wide variety of special events.

"It's fun to see people walking up and down the streets," said Karen Standridge of Gallery 113, "it feels like you're in a big city."

"Hundreds of people walk through the doors on First Friday," stated Gundega Stevens, co-owner of Auric Gallery, "not just here, but all the other galleries as well."

There's a lot to see throughout Downtown, and a truly enormous amount of art and creativity on display; specifically for this story, we primarily focused on Auric Gallery, Gallery 113, and Cottonwood Center for the Arts.

"What's nice about Cottonwood," said John Khoury, executive director of the Cottonwood Center for the Arts, "is that we have a 40,000 square-foot building. So, not only do you get an introduction to a new show, which is featured and put out on the First Friday of every month, but additionally, you have the opportunity to walk around and meet some of our 146 artists that have studios here."

First Fridays provide a space to support local businesses, see creativity on display, maybe listen to a local band, and definitely connect with local artists throughout Downtown.

"They come into the gallery," commented Standridge, "they meet several of our local artists who are here, we chat with them about our work, [and] we chat with them about Colorado Springs."

"It's community," said Stevens, "it's people getting together to visit with the artists and visit with each other, it's just a big party basically that we throw once a month."

While there are certainly opportunities to spend some cash on First Fridays, checking out these spaces and connecting with local art (as well as artists) is free.

"The artists have spent a lot of time creating this artwork," finished Stevens, "we've spent a lot of time putting it on display, we just really want people to come see it."

If you're looking for additional information regarding locations hosting First Friday events, check out this list compiled by the Downtown Partnership.

Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs also host their own First Friday events. For additional information, check out this list at Peak Radar.

Also, if you're looking for transportation options around downtown, consider the free downtown shuttle, which runs along Tejon Street.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the monthly Moon Market hosted at the Meanwhile Block in Colorado Springs.

Now in its fifth year of operations, this market hosts between 60 to 70 vendors each month with a focus on Colorado art and handmade goods that (according to the market's Facebook page) typically fall into the categories of "natural, metaphysical and creative."

"If you're weird, you're on the fringe, you're a little different, you're a tree-hugger, you listen to metal, whatever, we welcome all of the weirdos, all of the strange," commented Emma Ashwood, co-owner of the market.

According to Michelle Ford, the market's other co-owner, this monthly gathering of eclectic wares is focused towards artists that don't have their own brick-and-mortar stores, "...so that they have someplace they can feel like is their own."

The market is free to visit and operates around the full moon (hence the name).

"Of course, we can't schedule the full moon on a Saturday," stated Ford. "So, we always try to go with the weekend that's closest."

The next Moon Market will be held on May 2 from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Meanwhile Block, which is located on Costilla Street in Downtown Colorado Springs.

Additionally, an extra-large market will be held on June 21 with plans to feature live music, food trucks, street performers and around 150 vendors both inside and outside the facility.

For more information on the Colorado Springs Moon Market, click here.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Fountain Creek Nature Center.

Situated within the Fountain Creek Regional Park, this nature center and surrounding nature trail provide public access to hiking, wildlife viewing, informative exhibits, and a wealth of educational programming.

Access to the Nature Center and surrounding trails is free, while the cost for programs often falls within a price range of $3.00 - $5.00.

The Fountain Creek Nature Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm; however, the 0.7-mile nature trail loop that surrounds the Nature Center is open every day from 5:00 am - 9:00 pm and connects to the Fountain Creek Regional Park trails.

For additional information regarding Fountain Creek Nature Center and its upcoming events or how to get involved, click here.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Bear Creek Nature Center.

Situated within Bear Creek Regional Park, the Nature Center is free to visit and provides access to trails that allow visitors to view the area's flora and fauna.

Additionally, the Nature Center hosts a variety of programs throughout the year, including birding, educational walks and talks, local theatre, and volunteer opportunities; the majority of these programs are priced at $10.00 or less (with some being free).

The Bear Creek Nature Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., while the surrounding trails are accessible to the public from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

This year (2026) marks the 50th anniversary of Bear Creek Nature Center; celebrations will be held on August 22nd and will include food, games and (per the county's website) "bear-y exciting activities!"

For additional information regarding available programs at Bear Creek Nature Center and how you can get involved, click here.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is Theatre Across Borders (TAB).

Based in the Pikes Peak Region, this team has been putting together productions for children and families for several years; the goal, as listed on TAB's website, is to create theatre in unexpected places in order to "connect, inspire, and grow together."

TAB's current production is an interactive play that focuses on the adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

"We're doing a production of Winnie the Pooh for itty-bitty, little kids and their families. It's super interactive and great," commented Amanda Susman, an actress in the play, "it performs in nature centers and libraries throughout the spring and into the summer as well."

"Live theater is so important for the young brain," stated TAB executive director Melissa O'Rear.

The play is being held at the Fountain Creek Nature Center during mid-April before moving to the Bear Creek Nature Center during late April and early May:

Tickets for the event are $10.00 (ages 2 and under are free) and include a 30-minute production, a time dedicated to making a craft, and a short hike with the characters from the play once the production ends.

The play will move into libraries across the Pikes Peak region starting in June and running through July; additionally, TAB is performing another play at the Millibo Art Theatre in mid-May, which will focus on a science topic and is the result of a collaboration with local elementary students.

For additional information and tickets, click here.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center (RMDRC) in Woodland Park.

The space is packed with more than 300 exhibits both large and small that feature a range of full-size replicas as well as original fossils. The wealth of displays feature dinosaurs (like the enormous Tyrannosaurus rex), ancient marine life and prehistoric mammals.

When you walk into the RMDRC's first display room, you can expect to be staggered by the size and number of dinosaurs that greet you.

Aside from the three large rooms dedicated to displays, the RMDRC also provides a space for visitors to watch paleontologists work on fossils.

"We have a viewing area for our laboratory," stated Goderis. "So, you can actually go and see our paleo-techs and paleontologists working on the dinosaur bones."

The RMDRC is always adding to and switching up their exhibits. Currently, they are transitioning part of one room to feature ice age mammals. The Resource Center hopes to have this display fully realized at some point over the summer.

"Since the beginning of the year, " said Goderis. "We have almost a dozen new displays out; so if you come in, there will almost always be something new to look at."

Admission to the museum costs $13.00 for adults and $9.00 for children with discounts provided for seniors and military. There is no admission charge for children under the age of five.

Included in the price of admission is a tour that museum staff says will last between an hour and a hour-and-a-half.

For additional information, visit RMDRC's website.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Western Museum of Mining and Industry.

Situated almost directly off I-25 at exit 156, this 28-acre campus is dedicated to the history of mining, industry, geology, and the western frontier; the space is home to a number of historical structures and also a multitude of historical machines and artifacts located both inside and outside the museum.

Within the museum, visitors have the chance to learn about old mining techniques and technology, as well as view plenty of enormous, old machines functioning for brief periods of time.

"Certainly, the big machines that still operate that are over 100 years old are a big surprise and super fun to see in action," stated the museum's executive director, Grant Dewey.

"I think another very popular one for all ages is panning for gold. So, it's hands-on, you get to keep what you find. Our fluorescent mineral display is the largest one in the state, and that shocks people, too, because you walk behind the black curtain and wham! All this stuff is glowing in the dark."

The rest of the campus is also packed with educational material as well as opportunities to wander through and enjoy nature.

"Smith Creek comes through," commented Dewey, "so we have a couple of ponds and these beautiful trees on campus, so lots of fun nature. Historic buildings from the Reynolds Ranch, and that includes a barn, a house, and some bunkhouses, all that sort of thing. There's a blacksmith shop up on the hill and other artifacts scattered around the 28 acres that people can walk around and enjoy, including the stamp mill, the Yellow Jacket 2, which is a replica from the past."

Admission tickets to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry cost $14.00 for adults and $7.00 for kids (with a number of discounts available).

The museum regularly hosts educational events. For operating times and additional information, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organisations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Bristol Beer Choir.

Hosted at Bristol Brewing Company in the Ivywild School, this no-audition choir meets each Sunday from 6:30 - 8:00 pm to build community, collaborate in song, and maybe raise a pint.

"So in some ways, it's similar to bar trivia," commented Wes Sparkes, the choir's director and founder, "There's a community that meets once a week at the brewery. The difference is the thing that brings us together, and that we have in common is music and a love of singing."

According to Sparkes, when the choir first started in October of 2025, they had a group of about 19 participants; however, in their current cycle, the choir has grown to include 45 singers.

"I think the most gratifying thing has been seeing people smile," said Sparkes, "not only while we're meeting together, but when we're hanging out beforehand and afterwards, and also when their friends and family come to the concerts, seeing the smiles in the audience and knowing that we got to share music that we care about with an audience that's receptive and supportive. It's just fun."

The choir operates in six-week cycles, requires sign-ups but no auditions, and is open to all experience levels; each cycle concludes with a concert (also hosted at Ivywild) that is free and open to the public.

The current cycle runs through March, with the free concert planned for March 29th, at 7:30 pm in the Ivywild gymnasium.

If you're interested in signing up to be a part of the Bristol Beer Choir, the next cycle is planned to run from April 12 to May 17; the general cost to participate is $50, but college students and teachers can sign up for only $35!

According to the event listing on Bristol's website, "Must be 21+ to raise a pint, 18+ to raise your voice with us!"

For more information on signing up, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

The focus for this article is the wide variety of high school musicals that take place across Southern Colorado during the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Rehearsal for the productions, which are all open to the general public and fall under the $20.00 price point, started back in January and require students to dedicate dozens and dozens of hours to practice outside of their regular school schedule.

"My favorite thing about being a theater teacher," commented Michelle Robbins, the theater teacher for Rampart High School, "is that I get to see where they start when they audition to where they end up with the actual production. So that growth is the exciting part for me."

Teachers and students also say that the rehearsal for these productions provides a sense of community.

"It's a very accepting group that takes everybody in at whatever level that they're in and helps to develop each other," stated Lin Goodwin-Wittry, the theatre director for Mitchell High School, "and then on top of it, they have this complete place of belonging where they're able to grow, not only in theater skills, but as well as in real-world skills."

Times, locations, and prices for upcoming (and recently passed) productions can be found HERE.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (CSPM).

Situated within the 1903 El Paso County courthouse, this museum features an array of rotating exhibits, lectures, tours, and special events.

"We're part of the city's Department of Cultural Services," commented Meg Yevara, program coordinator for the museum, "and we work every day to preserve and share Pikes Peak regional history."

Recently, as of February 28, the museum opened a new exhibit featuring the "Legacy of Tattoo Art in Colorado Springs"; this new feature focuses on the life and art of the tattoo artist Colorado Nick, as well as several other notable tattoo artists.

Colorado Nick was born in Victor in 1914 and spent decades working in Colorado Springs.

"I just really want people to see a piece of Colorado Springs history that they may have not known about," stated guest curator of the Colorado Nick exhibit and co-founder of Yellow Beak Press, Scott Boyer.

"This was sort of a hidden piece of our history as far as the art of tattooing goes."

The exhibit is situated upstairs at the CSPM and will be open for a full year.

Visitation to the museum, as well as participation in all museum-hosted events, is free.

"This is the history collection. These are the stories of your city, the city of Colorado Springs. So you should be able to come here and enjoy it, no cost," finished Yevara.

If you want to see a list of the museum's current exhibits or upcoming events/lectures/tours, click here.

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RIO GRANDE COUNTY, Colo. When Rick Dunnahoo set out Tuesday morning to capture photographs of sandhill cranes at the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, he never would have guessed that he would come home that day with several photos of a wolf.

"I had no aspirations to photograph anything like that that day," he told the Scripps News Group on Thursday. "I was just looking for the birds."

This came as Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported that wolves had moved through the San Luis Valley near the southern Front Range in the past month.

The wildlife refuge sees thousands of sandhills cranes during their biannual migration as they fly between their wintering grounds in New Mexico wintering grounds and their nesting sites farther north. It's a spectacle that brings in photographers from near and far, including Dunnahoo, and has even prompted an annual Monte Vista Crane Festival, which runs March 6-8 this year.

Dunnahoo lives about 20 miles from the refuge, so he headed out that way Tuesday to get some shots. He pulled up to the main parking lot off County Road 8 South, where a large barley field extends to the north.

"I pulled up there and started observing the cranes. They were a long ways off. They were at least 150-200 yards away. So I wasn't really getting any good photos of them, but just looking to see if any were going to be flying over me or toward my direction, where I could get some shots there," he described.

As the long-time Coloradan leaned against his pickup, something caught his eye.

He looked over.

"I see this wolf running," Dunnahoo said. "And it's running not towards me, but it's running about 30 feet away from me, and so it was kind of skirting the field of barley. Because I had my camera and the lens ready, I just pulled up and started shooting, and the whole encounter didn't take more than about three or four seconds."

"She covered that field in no time at all, and was gone," he added.

It was barely enough time to react beyond raising his lens, he said.

"I've got a nice camera, a nice lens, and had the settings right," he said. "I just pulled up the camera and... just held the shutter down, and clicked away."

Right afterward, Dunnahoo scanned the photos he had just taken to make sure it wasn't just a dog. But the size of the wolf's paws and her speed running across the field made him feel pretty confident.

He reached out to a wildlife manager for the area, who confirmed he was aware of this wolf. He also contacted his wife, whose ranching friends a few miles away have spotted a wolf hanging around their land. Dunnahoo said the predator makes them nervous, as their cows are giving birth now.

He said he feels like Colorado's wolf reintroduction program hasn't been overly fair to the wolves, noting that the one he saw was probably looking for others of its kind while trying to avoid people in a populated state.

"You know, in the Yellowstone ecosystem, they've got plenty of room there. They can extend, establish packs and live a normal life, but not in Colorado," he said.

Watch our interview with photographer Rick Dunnahoo in the video below.

This may have been a once-in-a-lifetime shot, but Dunnahoo is looking forward to retiring at the end of the year and enjoying more photography around Colorado and beyond.

"It's a great hobby," he said. "You meet great people. A lot of photographers are very nice. I really enjoy it. And it's great to be in a beautiful state like Colorado."

Join here

Denver7 has been following Colorado's wolf reintroduction program since the very beginning, and you can explore all of that reporting in the timeline below, which starts with our most recent story.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) confirmed to Denver7 on Wednesday that this wolf was in the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge area.

The agency released a new wolf movement map on Wednesday, showing two individual wolves moving through several watersheds in the San Luis Valley near the southern Front Range. As of Wednesday, CPW said no wolves had crossed Interstate 25 or spent any time in urban centers.

Since the 2023 approval of the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan, CPW has said that wolves are expected to expand widely over the years, including to the Front Range.

CPW uses watersheds to illustrate wolf movements, and if a watershed is purple, it indicates that at least one wolf spent time within its boundaries. It does not mean they traveled the entire area or are still within the watershed.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Balanced Rook Chess Club.

Founded in 2024 at Library 21c near the Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Springs, before moving to Wackadoo Brewing (also in Colorado Springs) in October of 2025, the Balanced Rook Chess Club is a social group dedicated to providing accessibility to the game of chess while also acting as a catalyst for community.

"You come in, you can watch a game being played," commented Lloyd Gauthier, chief chess officer and organizer for the club, "you can challenge someone who's free to a game. If I see two people that are looking for a game, I'll introduce them to each other, turn them loose, and you play."

The club is free, open to the public, and has undergone a pretty significant increase in participation at the beginning of 2025.

According to Gauthier, the group was averaging around 9 visitors a week at the library; however, following the move to Wackadoo, that average jumped up to about 19 visitors each week and then jumped again to the high 30s in early 2026, an increase Gauthier attributes to a recent article from the Gazette.

"The Gazette article got a ton of attention. So that was people that they know how to play chess, they want to play chess, they didn't know where to go to do it. Now all of a sudden, they've got that outlet."

The club's current home base, Wackadoo Brewing, is a space that comes at no charge to the club or its participants; Steven Fuller, Wackadoo's founder and head brewer, explains that the business was always intended to act as a gathering place.

"Most of our nights we're not that busy compared to most breweries," stated Fuller, "so we opened it up to more clubs and organizations, like this, to offer them that space. Everybody else he went to wanted to charge him for the space. And I always wanted this to be a community center, a hub, a place where people could come and socialize and come together."

Beyond acting as an outlet for those wanting to play more chess, Gauthier says that the Balanced Rook Chess Club also helps to foster new friendships and conversations.

"You meet a lot of different people, and you make some new friends. I've seen, you know, some people come in, and they just met somebody a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden they know their name. They recognize them. They're happy to play against them again.

The Balanced Rook Chess Club meets every Thursday from 6:00 - 9:00 pm at Wackadoo Brewing. Visiting and participating are fully free; for additional information, visit the group's Facebook page.

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The second weekend of February saw hundreds of hockey players and hockey enthusiasts descend upon Georgetown to take part in/enjoy watching a massive pond hockey tournament.

Now, having wrapped up its 17th year, the Colorado Pond Hockey Tournament was initially situated at Dillon Reservoir before moving to its current location on Georgetown Lake in 2024.

The massive event was founded by David Janowiec, who operates the Recess Factory, an event management business based in Erie.

The tournament hosts a total of 300 teams and typically boasts 24 separate rinks all running games at once; however, this year, Janowiec says that unseasonably warm weather pushed his team to settle for only 22 rinks.

For an idea of how popular the tournament has become in its nearly two decades of operation, their initial pond hockey venture hosted only 30 teams on two ice rinks; clearly, it's gained momentum since then.

"Now we cap it at 300 because we want to keep that intimate feeling," commented Janowiec.

According to participants interviewed at the event, the hockey is almost a secondary focus of the tournament.

"Yeah, I think the hockey is the excuse to show up, right? But the people we're here with, the relationships, the guys we get to hang out with, that's what makes it all worth coming to," said one participant.

Janowiec went as far as to say that, "Hockey is kind of the second thing here, it's such a family, and there's so many people that are coming here for just the community of it."

If you're interested in learning more about this annual happening or want to try to sign up for the 2027 tournament (registration takes place on March 1), click here.

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If the lakes have frozen, the snow hasn't fallen, and the wind is JUST right, you might catch sight of boat-like conveyances rocketing across the ice of Colorado's frozen bodies of water, powered by only the wind in their sails.

Ice boating, otherwise known as hard-water sailing, utilizes specialized crafts that are equipped with metal blades and sails in order to harness the wind and zip across the surface of a frozen lake.

The video attached to this article was captured at Eleven Mile Canyon Reservoir, where a group of dedicated ice sailors gathered to take advantage of ideal sailing weather.

According to Rick Hypes, who's been ice boating for more than three decades, "We are looking for clear ice, like we have today. We're looking for, obviously, thick enough ice so that we're not going to go through, and we're looking for winds, you know, 10 to 20 miles an hour."

Waiting for conditions with just the right amount of wind is critical for these 'boats' because they can achieve multiples of the wind speed, "...because there's hardly any friction on the ice," said Hypes, "we can actually go faster than the wind."

Aside from the wind, the ice has to be strong enough and clear enough to sail; and when the conditions are right, you have to be ready to go right away.

Hypes explains that a great year of sailing might consist of a week on the ice, while a good year might just include a couple of days.

To mitigate the challenges of Colorado's narrow window of opportunity to pursue this niche sport, Hypes and a number of other ice sailors across the state have formed a network to keep an eye on the conditions of potential sailing spots across the state and even into Wyoming.

"You've got to be careful," commented Lionel Stepp, another ice sailor, "it's like anything, but the thrill of it is, I was unsurpassable."

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is Peak Improv Theater.

Now entering its third year of operations, this space acts as a landing zone for nearly a dozen different improv/comedy groups across Colorado Springs; the business is operated by a long-running improv troupe known as The Stick Horses, which has been around since 2004.

"So we have regular improv, whose line is it anyways type of stuff, but we also have improvised musicals, improvised puppet shows, improvised Dungeons & Dragons shows," stated Casey Frase, Peak Improv's marketing director (and also a member of the Stick Horses).

The venue hosts a number of improv classes throughout the week, and schedules shows for Fridays and Saturdays; meanwhile, each Thursday is reserved for a "Free Improv Jam" where visitors can try their hand at a variety of improv games.

"They learn that this is a safe space to just play," stated Meggan Hyde, a co-owner and the education director for Peak Improv, "as adults we don't play enough, and here we're learning how to play again, and we're meeting people to support us."

Tickets for each show are $15 or less, with first Friday events providing a free or pay-what-you-can option for visitors.

"I mean, other than just laughing a lot, I think people leave this theater feeling like they are part of something," finished Frase.

For additional information on how to get involved with Peak Improv Theater or to visit and see a show, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40; the focus for this article (and outing) is a fashion show hosted by the Galleries of Contemporary Art (GOCA) on February 20 that provides a showcase for wearable art created by Colorado designers.

Dubbed the House of GOCA, the runway event hosted at the Ent Center for the Arts is now entering its second year; the theme is "Stardust" and each piece will draw inspiration from the artist whose work is currently on display at the gallery (last year, the artist was Patrick Shearn)

"This event is inspired by the exhibition of art by Nina Elder that's currently on view," stated Dr. Joy Armstrong, director for GOCA, "and features designs from eight Front Range designers, each who have made between eight and 12 wearable looks that will be worn on models on the runway."

The idea behind the event is to provide another avenue to explore what contemporary art means to everyone.

"Wearable art and fashion is just another way for us to explore what contemporary art means to all of us as individuals. It's something that we can connect to as human beings," said Dr. Armstrong, "because so much of our identity, the way we project ourselves in the world, is based on the way we adorn our bodies."

The event will take place on February 20 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Shockley-Zalabak Theater at the Ent Center for the Arts. For additional details and to check on ticket availability, click here.

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For nearly 60 years, the Broadmoor Curling Club has been working to further the sport of curling in Colorado Springs; the club not only hosts regularly scheduled leagues, but also "learn-to-curl" and "open play" events in order to make the sport accessible to everyone.

The club was initially founded in 1968 at the Broadmoor Ice Palace, where the curling group acquired its name; currently, the group of avid curlers operates out of the Broadmoor World Arena Ice Hall.

"We have a decent membership," commented club president Matthew Ramsey, "we have full leagues going every single year, we try to have at least two."

Outside of the leagues, the club also provides a space for the growth of the Colorado Springs community of curlers by providing introductory courses and games in order to make the sport available to those who want to try their hand at sweeping, throwing stones, and balancing on the ice.

"I really recommend trying out our learn-to-curls," said Ramsey, "having a lesson really helps out that first time you start playing."

The club is constantly hoping to grow the number of curling enthusiasts in the area, because more curlers can mean more time out on the ice.

"It's a very self-fulfilling prophecy," added Ramsey, "if we get more members in the club, we can do more curling events."

If you would like to learn more about the Broadmoor Curling Club and maybe check out a "learn-to-curl" event, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Great Fruitcake Toss in Manitou Springs.

The last Saturday in January marks 31 years since the start of this quirky tradition, where crowds gather to fling fruitcake as a community.

"It started back in 1996," commented special events coordinator Hallie Gurba with Visit Manitou Springs. "There's kind of this universal joke that fruitcake is a gag gift to receive for Christmas. So, we wanted to bring some tourists out here in the wintertime back in the 90s, and fruitcake was what came to mind."

Organized by Visit Manitou Springs, the event includes a range of contests where competitors can test their abilities in challenges of strength, accuracy, balance and baking prowess.

The event is hosted in Memorial Park in Manitou Springs on Saturday, January 31, between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.; tickets to participate in the various games and friendly competitions cost a dollar, or the donation of a canned good, which will be sent to the Manitou Springs Food Pantry.

"We have made all of our homemade fruitcakes with animal-friendly ingredients," said Gurba. "They will all be heading to Flying Pig Farms for food compost and the animals to enjoy."

For additional event information, including how to enter the Great Fruitcake Bake Off, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort.

Situated less than a mile away from the Garden of the Gods, the Buffalo Lodge is a hybrid between a place to spend the night and a place to pursue a wide variety of activities from bicycle excursions to live music and tons of stuff in between.

The resort hosts a variety of cycling events (along with everything else listed above and more), including weekly, Saturday excursions where groups of cyclists travel to some of the more scenic spots across Colorado Springs, "Garden of the Gods, though, is hands down number one," commented Giffin, "we don't ride without going through Garden of the Gods. It's in our backyard."

During warmer weather days or throughout the summer, Giffin reports that the Lodge often sees between 40 to 60 cyclists show up on any given Saturday to participate in the cycling events.

"And then we all come back, and we have a beer together and hang out, and it's really a community that we've built here, and then you go home and take a shower, come back for a live concert. So it's just, it's great. It's like one of the best kept not secrets in town."

If you would like to join a cycling event, the first ride is free and then it costs $25 for the year; for additional events, check out the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort website which features a full calendar.

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Running groups known as Burrito Leagues are popping up across the country and beyond for January, as runners dedicate hours and days to jogging short trails, paths, and loops over and over and over again.

Now, the league has a new chapter in Colorado Springs, located at the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort.

Participants accumulate dozens and hundreds of miles through this repetition throughout January, with winners taking home a variety of prizes (which typically include some amount of burritos); however, the real goal goes beyond burritos.

According to the Burrito League website, the movement 'runs' on the idea of "...connecting with your local community through consistency and shared effort."

The movement is being driven by Aravaipa Running, a group that hosts and organizes a number of trail and endurance running events throughout the southwest.

Aravaipa Running has set up a website with details on how new Burrito League chapters can be set up and managed.

Locations have been set up on four continents (with the vast majority falling within North America); each participant measures their runs through the Strava app, and each chapter is in charge of its own rewards and incentives.

During the second week of January, the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort became an official Burrito League running location, offering a .2-mile loop.

According to local race organizers, among the Colorado Springs prizes are a year's worth of burritos (52) and a two-night stay at the Buffalo Lodge.

For details on how to get involved, click here.

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Since the mid-1980s, Boyd Struble has been crafting neon signs, shapes, and images in a field of artistry that you can't find in as many places as you once could; it's been a life dedicated to the pursuit of a mystifying glow.

Operating out of his aptly named workshop, Boyd's Neon, Boyd has constructed mountains of neon signage, "Hundreds for sure," he commented, "probably thousands, I mean, [over] forty years."

His commissions and repairs have illuminated all sorts of places; he's made signs for hotels, restaurants, tattoo parlors, private collectors, and more (much more).

He's even worked on and constructed signs for Neon Alley in Pueblo; he operates one of the rare neon workshops in southern Colorado.

His journey through the world of neon started in Denver in the 1980s before he eventually headed to Colorado Springs in the 1990s. "Then, in 2001, [I] started my own shop."

Boyd says the days in his workshop are predominantly filled with bending glass, so much so that he admits there was a point in time when he would often bend glass in his sleep.

"At the end you put on electrodes," said Boyd, "take it over to the bombarder, heat it up, pull all the impurities out, get it down to a vacuum, [and] then back-fill it with either neon or argon."

The job has gone through changes over the years; it used to be that Boyd's days were filled with creating neon for "pan channel letters," which are the illuminated letters that you would see on the front of any assortment of stores; however, when LED lights began to dominate the market (in the 2000s), that all changed.

"Every letter you see out there that's lit up used to have neon, now pretty much all of them have LED's."

Boyd says that about 90 percent of that type of business shifted to LED lights; for a few years, this shift left him wondering if he would have to shut down.

"And then it's slowly come back," Boyd said, "there's a lot of collectors that keep me going and custom signs, like I do custom window signs."

While the shift has meant a decrease in overall business, it's also meant an increase in the amount of interesting jobs that Boyd is pursuing; according to Boyd, his work is split pretty evenly between repairs and unique, custom jobs, "Yeah, those are the ones you get excited about."

Throughout all the shifts and turns, Boyd says it's been a good life, "I still like it, I'm still here," he chuckled.

Boyd says that for at least the next four years, he plans to continue operating as normal out of his current location, but past that point, things may change again.

To find out more about Boyd's Neon, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is Parish House Baroque.

This (often) 4-person, professional ensemble has been performing in Colorado Springs for 13 years. "We focus on the Baroque period of music," commented artistic director and founder, Elisa Wicks, "so the 17th and 18th century. Sometimes we reach back into [the] Renaissance."

One of the aspects that truly sets this group apart is its pursuit of performing on period-appropriate instruments with period-appropriate settings.

"One of the things we do is we use historical tuning systems," stated the group's harpsichord player, Eric Wicks, "which are only just a little bit different from modern, but they do give every key its own sound. And in the Baroque period, the composers believed that each key would affect certain motions, so there was a real reason why a piece might be in D major over A major, and our audiences seem to resonate with this."

Parish House Baroque performs in the Peel House, which is a part of the property of First Lutheran Church on Cascade in Colorado Springs; the group's next concerts will be held February 13th and 14th, with ticket prices set at $20.00 for general admission and $5.00 for students.

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ESTES PARK, Colo. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), hoping to see one of the park's most iconic animals: Moose. But pulling back the curtain reveals an enormous problem. Their booming numbers are severely damaging, sometimes irreversibly, the park's fragile wetlands.

Now, park staff are deciding how to best manage the large animals while restoring that ecosystem.

"We're starting this park-wide wetland restoration and moose management planning process with the goal of halting the loss of wetlands where they still exist and restoring wetlands that have been degraded or lost," explained Will Deacy, large mammal ecologist for RMNP.

Deacy was one of a handful of speakers who guided a conversation about the issue during a virtual information session earlier this month. The purpose of it was to begin a conversation before RMNP begins laying out a formal plan, which will likely start in 2026.

Wetlands are notoriously difficult to restore once damaged and play a crucial role for both flora and fauna at RMNP.

Wetlands are among the most valuable ecosystems in the park," said RMNP Superintendent Gary Ingram during the session. "They support highly biodiverse habitats, are critical to improving water quality, are popular recreation destinations, and limit wildfire severity."

With a swelling number of moose which heavily rely on wetlands for both food and habitat the National Park Service (NPS) is beginning a conversation with the public about managing the creatures to ease the strain on wetlands and allow them to regrow.

In RMNP, tall willows are the specific species that "defines and supports and allows for regeneration of most of the park wetlands," Deacy explained.

Any place that is losing tall willows is "on a rapid path" to losing wetlands, he said.

While only about 4% of the park is considered wetlands, those ecosystems are "diversity hotspots" and are home to a variety of wildlife and many rare plants, Deacy said. About 20% of the park's mammals rely on wetlands.

Wetlands also attract human visitors, with many of the park's most popular trails winding through them.

They can hold water during drought, reduce flooding during heavy rain, act as a filter to improve water quality and hold back fires, Deacy explained.

Beavers play a massive role in these ecosystems, as they use willow and aspen to build their dams, which hold back water or slow its flow, flooding banks and creating wetlands which to complete the circle allows for more growth of willow and aspen, he said.

But once damaged, restoring wetlands can be very difficult. And sometimes, it's an impossible task.

The loss of tall willows in RMNP is most dramatic on the west side of the park, where 98% of willow and aspen have disappeared from 1999 to 2019, Deacy said.

"We know more anecdotally that we're losing wetlands and willow across the entire park," he said.

Wetlands that are damaged over time can eventually transition to a grassland.

"And so that's changing from a wetland, which has all these amazing benefits, including lots of species richness, lots of recreational opportunities and benefits for people outside parks, to grasslands, which have fewer species, don't have those benefits and might be dominated by (non-native) species like Kentucky bluegrass," Deacy said.

To fully understand how moose are negatively impacting wetlands, you have to start with their cousin the elk.

"When gray wolves and grizzly bears were extirpated, so were elk, because they were hunted for meat in the area, and they had to be reintroduced in the years just before Rocky Mountain National Park was created in 1915," Deacy explained.

With no predators and hunting prohibited within the park, their numbers skyrocketed. By 1945, RMNP staff had a plan to control the population.

It involved some culling and relocating the animals across other parts of North America. But in 1968, the NPS management system favored "natural regulation" in short, let Mother Nature figure it out.

"Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that was a poor fit for Rocky," Deacy said.

By the 1990s, a chunk of the very large population of elk were no longer migrating. Instead, they stayed put through the winter and continued eating sensitive wetland vegetation year-round.

"So, that concentrated population of elk started having some serious impacts on willow and aspen, to the point where we're seeing some serious declines," Deacy said, adding that willows make up about 15% of an elk's diet.

Another animal reliant on the willows was unable to keep up beavers.

They use willow as both a food source and to build dams, which create wetlands, Deacy said. The number of beavers in RMNP started to rapidly decline after 1940 due to a period of trapping followed by elk out-competing them for the willows.

Fewer beavers meant fewer dams and diminishing wetland areas.

Numbers illustrate the impact:

These issues led to the creation of the Elk and Vegetation Management Plan, or EVMP, which was implemented in 2008. Its primary goals were to restore vegetation and rebalance the elk population.

This plan presented RMNP staff with two main tools.

The first was habitat fencing, or "exclosures," which allow vegetation a reprieve from grazing elk and moose. Smaller critters including coyotes and mule deer can easily go under the fencing. It was a clear and quick success, with obvious regrowth inside the fencing.

The second tool was elk culling. While hunting is illegal within the park, culling was permitted in this case.

"Culling is used as a conservation tool to reduce populations that have exceeded carrying capacity of their habitat," Dearcy explained. "And opposed to hunting, culling is done in a really controlled manner to minimize impacts on park operations or visitors or, you know, land holders outside the park."

Between 2009 and 2011, 130 cow elk were culled within the park. At the end of that timeline, researchers began noticing that the herds had changed behavior and started a natural migration again, Deacy said. Culling ended in 2011. Deceased elk that had chronic wasting disease were studied and those that were not were distributed to a meat lottery.

Overall, it looked like much of the EVMP had been successful. But there was one goal they had not reached: Recovery of plants outside the fencing.

There were two primary reasons for this, Deacy explained.

For one, the beaver population remains extremely limited today.

And second, the reason you likely opened this story a massive increase in moose within the national park.

If you visit RMNP today, you have a decent chance of seeing moose somewhere on the trails, crossing the road or wallowing in calm waters.

As of the 2024 estimate, about 3,620 moose now call Colorado home. Of those, an estimated 240 live within the national park boundaries, Deacy said. Many more, as the graph below illustrates, live nearby.

But that wasn't always the case. Moose were considered rare in the state until 1978 and 1979, when Colorado Parks and Wildlife translocated 12 of them from Utah and Wyoming into North Park, which is on the west side of RMNP. This was done to increase viewing and hunting opportunities.

This initially unfolded much like the elk reintroduction. With no natural predators going after adult moose and hunting being prohibited in the national park, that population of moose took off running over the following decades.

To monitor their growth, more than 70 moose have been collared since 2017. Starting in 2019, biologists have also performed aerial infrared surveys to try to count them and get a better grasp on their numbers. They did the same this past July.

And the most important takeaway here is that moose density has increased 49% in the five years since 2020," Deacy said. "So, it's a pretty rapid increase in the moose population.

That 49% increase applies to moose within the surveyed area, which makes up about 65% of the park.

"So, it's not the whole park, but it should be a good approximation of how moose density has increased in the park," a RMNP spokesperson told our Denver partners.

By no fault of their own, moose ecology is simply bad for wetland restoration.

The huge animals' favorite meal is willows it's actually about 90% of their diet. One moose consumes about as much willow as 15 elk, Deacy said. Plus, they are mostly non-migratory, so their impacts are year-round as opposed to the migrating elk herds.

Take the estimated RMNP moose population of 240 and multiply it by 15, and those moose are impacting the wetlands in the same way 3,600 additional elk would, year-round, he said.

The stress on wetlands appears to have gone just beyond a tipping point, Deacy said, but the EVNP has prevented a "runaway event." This means that the wetlands are beginning to slip toward becoming grasslands a process that park staff are trying to halt and reverse.

"And the key thing here is that if we do nothing at this point, then the natural forces in the ecosystem will turn these wetlands into grasslands, and we could very well lose many of these wetlands permanently. Or, optimistically, maybe with lots of effort, we could return them to wetlands in the future," Deacy said.

Recent CPW research has shown a decrease in the number of calves per cow outside of the park, which Deacy said is an early sign of "a population reaching or exceeding carrying capacity."

When Deacy was asked if gray wolves could help stabilize the population, he said it's not that simple.

"It's tempting to think that by returning wolves to the ecosystem, we can turn back time and reverse the process of loss," he said. "... And unfortunately, that's a simplified truth. ... If wolves are gone for many decades, maybe 100 years, from a place and so much has changed during that time, we can't expect that putting them back in the ecosystem will fix everything that's been changed."

Wolf diets are 95% elk and just a small percentage are moose, he added.

Toward the end of the session, Deacy stressed that he, and many of his peers, love the park's wildlife moose included. He said he didn't want this planning process to seem like that wasn't the case.

"I think moose are really cool," he said. "Other people that I work with think moose are super cool, and just because we're working on this project doesn't mean that we don't think that that's true. It's just that we're in a situation where we have to protect these resources for lots of different species, and the research is pointing towards moose being a significant issue in this problem."

And so the first few steps toward a management plan for moose have started.

"This is not a natural situation that we're in," he continued. "All of these steps were human-caused. And unfortunately, we're in a situation where it's likely going to take human action to return us on the other side of this threshold and let wetlands become restored."

The NPS is welcoming members of the public who are passionate about national parks and conservation to offer their input.

In addition, RMNP has public volunteer willow restoration projects to help revegetate the areas. The park will post about these opportunities on its social media.

The NPS is asking for public feedback, especially on the following questions:

The comment period will continue through Jan. 8, 2026, at midnight. Click here to provide feedback.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is Trombone Christmas.

Trombone Christmas is a nationwide series of events held each December that involves choirs of trombonists playing classical holiday tunes that have had all the parts adapted for (you guessed it) trombones; here in Colorado Springs, offshoot concerts have been hosted for 11 years by the Bare Bones Trombone Choir.

"I think," commented Bill Emery, a member of the Bare Bones Trombone Choir, "when people are coming to a concert of trombones anytime, whether it's Christmas or not, you're going to go away with this feeling of, 'I like that.'"

Aside from playing all-trombone arrangements of well-known holiday songs, one of the more unique aspects of Trombone Christmas is its accessibility to the community; it's both free to attend and also open to the public to join!

"Yes, we would love to have you," stated Trombone Christmas organizer Christina Van Camp, "Everyone's welcome. Even if you haven't played your trombone in many decades, borrow a trombone and come join us. Let us know if you can, so we'll have music for you, but we will fit you in."

"We've had people show up to rehearsals who haven't played for a while," agreed Emery, "and we'll put them on parts that work for their ability level."

The group says that all trombonists of "high school level and beyond" are welcome to join them on stage for their upcoming Christmas concert, which will be held on December 21st at Sunrise United Methodist Church (in Colorado Springs) at 4:00 pm.

For those interested in joining the group in performing at their upcoming concert, organizers say you can attend an optional rehearsal (hosted on December 20th at First Lutheran Church at 9:00 am) or "live dangerously" and just show up to perform at the event; either way, the Bare Bone Trombone Choir asks that you RSVP on their Facebook page.

For those just wanting to attend and enjoy holiday tunes played in melodic brass, the concert is free.

For more information regarding the national movement known as Trombone Christmas, click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is ChoralSong of Colorado Springs.

Founded in 2023, ChoralSong is an auditioned choir of just over two-dozen vocalists who come from across the Pikes Peak region in order to create and share community through music.

"Because of the effect that live performances of music have on people," commented artistic director Daniel Price, "it starts with us as we come together once a week, and we are so excited to have this chance to be able to sing together, to be part of this small microcosm of Colorado Springs, of the Pikes Peak region. Then it is just extra special when we can actually take that and bring it to the public."

The hope and belief from ChoralSong is that through the power of live music, the choir and the audience can become a tighter knit community.

"It is a way to bring the community together," added Sandy Tiemens, executive director for ChoralSong.

The choir's Christmas concert (Festival of Carols) will be held on December 16 at 7:00 pm at the Grace and St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Downtown Colorado Springs.

For ticket information, click here. For additional information regarding ChoralSong of Colorado Springs and their ongoing endeavors (or how/when to audition), click here.

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Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is Soli Deo Gloria Choir.

Founded in 1973, Soli Deo Gloria is a non-auditioned, community choir comprised of four ensembles, the largest of which can consist of 140 voices; the choir provides free concerts to folks across the Pikes Peak Region.

"There's a lot of diversity in music involved in Soli Deo Gloria Choir," stated Nathaniel Voelkner, artistic and executive director for the choir. "We do a lot of classical works, we also do a lot of music from all different time periods, a little bit of different genres, but it's all choral music, all about bringing people together and sharing in the experience of making song together."

The choir is dedicated to welcoming everyone who wants to sing, with their motto listed on their website as, "With every voice, we are one song."

If you are interested in learning how/when to register to join Soli Deo Gloria, click here.

The choir's next large event is the Soli Christmas Celebration taking place on December 13 at 3:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church.

Tickets are free and can be reserved online.

You can also find members of the choir caroling through Downtown Colorado Springs on Saturdays around the lunch hour through the holiday season.

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For El Paso County resident Brenda Quiones, the road towards discovering her artistic flair has been lined with hundreds of hats and defined by their decades of stories.

Brenda owns and operates St. Clement Custom Hats and spends her days crafting and restoring fur felt hats, "Some people wear fedoras, some people wear western styles, and I can make all of those hats."

All of those and more besides.

"Id say I've made over a hundred new hats. and I've repaired and restored twice that."

Brenda describes the journey towards this vocation as an unexpected one, having spent her professional career in a more corporate environment.

"After 40 years of professional environments and regulatory affairs and offices and fluorescent lights," commented Brenda, "you know, it's so rewarding to be able to make a living off of being an artist; I never thought that was possible."

The connective thread between then and now is likely her small herd of alpacas she cares for on her property east of Colorado Springs.

"Well, when you get a herd of alpacas, what are you going to do? You shear them and use their fiber."

So, for many years, she's been processing, carding, spinning, weaving, and selling alpaca fiber products, "...I wanted a different niche though," she commented.

About six years back, her husband found that niche from an article in the Gazette on Tom Hirt, a professional hat maker who's made plenty of hats for famous movies over the decades; within that article, Brenda learned about Hirt's twice-yearly class at Trinidad State College, "So I said, I want to try that."

And so, she did.

Brenda's first two hats were for her and her husband, "...and from that point forward, I was hooked."

She explains that the years of experience in working with alpaca fiber prepared her for the transition to working with the fur felt she's now using to construct her wide variety of custom headware.

She continued to learn more, practice more, and began assembling all the requisite supplies and equipment; soon her family and friends started asking for their own hats and hat repairs.

Eventually, through word of mouth, new customers started to call asking for restorations and new custom-makes, "So, it just picked up and snowballed from there and I just got more and more requests."

Finally, in 2023, she officially launched her business.

When she first launched, she was still working a full-time job as a human-resources manager, adding her hat-making endeavors as an additional part-time job; however, overtime her new, artistic pursuit was able to become her full-time (and now, only) job.

"And now it's to the point," commented Brenda, "where I'm falling asleep at night, thinking about the hats that I want to work on in the morning."

She says her work queue is now consistently about two months out; when she's able to start work on a new hat, it takes between 5 to 10 days to complete, while a hat restoration is harder to predict due to the variety of conditions in which they arrive.

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One thing she loves about her chosen occupation, is the stories; Brenda says that new hats often denote an upcoming chapter in someone's life, while restorations can come packed with decades of experiences, "Every customer hands it to me with a story."

"Yeah, it's definitely very intimidating when someone hands you their 50-year-old hat that needs repair and says, 'I've had this hat since my grandparents gave it to me when I was 16, I'm taking this hat with me to my grave, I need you to make it perfect.'"

However, when the job is done, "The look on their face when I give it back to them, it's like getting a member of the family back for them."

Each time she works to continue one of these stories, she also adds to her own story.

"My kids are artists, we have a lot of artists in the family," said Brenda, "and people would ask me, 'aren't you an artist? Where did the kids get their skills from and their talents from?' And I would say, 'I don't know if I'm an artist, because I work all the time,' and now I'm discovering the artist inside."

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Brenda constructs each of her hats from beaver, nutria, or rabbit fur felt.

She says that she also still finds time to work with alpaca fiber, but that it occupies her "hobby time" now.

If you would like to learn more about St. Clement Custom Hats or check out Brenda's ongoing projects, click here.

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News5 is highlighting some of the people, places and happenings that make southern Colorado truly unique.

Here are some originals News5 covered this year. For more unique stories, click here.

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Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.

Getting out and exploring Colorado Springs and the surrounding area doesn't need to break the bank.

We're highlighting businesses, organizations, and happenings that you can engage with for under $40.00; the focus for this article (and outing) is Christmas Brass Colorado Springs, a free, weekly, live-music encounter.

For the past three decades, every holiday season in downtown Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs has been highlighted with the bright, uplifting tones of this strolling, Christmas Brass band.

The wandering quartet starts their quest to distribute holiday cheer right before Thanksgiving and continues their serenade-centric outings right up to Christmas Eve.

"It's just a way to help people get into the Christmas spirit, enjoy time out with their families, enjoy shopping, take in the sights around downtown, and really enjoy some music, some live music," commented Teri Pederson, a trumpet player with the group.

The mobile band also hopes to inspire folks to maybe pick up an instrument and try it out!

"Well, we hope that they enjoy the music and perhaps become interested in learning to play an instrument, for the children, and [for] the adults, maybe revisiting an instrument," said organizer Christina Van Camp.

If you're interested in finding the Christmas Brass, check out their schedule for the remainder of the season:

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The admitted gunman in the attack on the Nov. 27 2015 Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood died Saturday Nov.22, nearly 10 years to the day since the shooting.

Robert Dear was being held at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.

While the shooting happened a decade ago, Dear never even made a formal plea, despite yelling out in a 2015 court hearing Im guilty. Theres no trial!.

His case was defined by a competency process that caused challenges for prosecutors at the state and federal level.

This was kind of an odd case that he came in day one wanting to plead guilty, willing to take the penalties associated with that, Dan May, the former 4

Judicial District Attorney who was one of the original prosecutors on the case said.

May was driving his car Tuesday when he heard Dear died on his cars radio.

I was kind of shocked, I kind of did a double take. I actually pulled over and looked at my phone and said, Robert Dear died? May recalled.

Ten years and no plea or trial for the self-proclaimed gunman.

Details of the case have been limited in the last decade, which is typical for cases prior to trial, but it was also intentional on Mays part. He said he wanted to make sure there were no leaks, he met with individual police officers after the shooting to set the tone that there would be no leaks to the press.

Its one of the most buttoned up cases Ive had, but its sort of setting that tone that night, because you see on these cases nationally, they just leak, leak, leak and that does not not help a prosecutor's case. It doesn't help the defense attorneys case, doesn't help the judge in the courtroom. We actually kept a pretty good lid on it starting that night, May said.

Five years on the case while in office, he was frustrated the case didnt have a finish.

I thought it would get to trial. Robert Dear always wanted to plead guilty, May said.

May dealt with a myriad of frustrations with the court consistently ruling him incompetent to stand trial in his state case, where he faced nearly 200 counts including first degree murder.

We felt pretty confident that he was going to be found competent at some point and that we would have a trial, May said, we tried a lot of different tactics around that.

May said at one point Dear was teaching competency classes at the State Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo, where he spent years. The classes were education for patients to try and return them to competency, May said Dear was a teacher for those classes, despite a judge repeatedly ruling him incompetent.

We put that on even as evidence at one of our hearings that he was teaching the class, saying in our opinion, we felt he was competent enough to go ahead and make decisions on this case.

During his first in-person court appearance, Dear made numerous outbursts including calling out his public defender, Dan King. King had previously represented James Holmes, who earlier thate year had been found guilty of killing 12 people at an Aurora movie theater in 2012.

When he [King] walked in, I think Dear recognized him immediately, looked at him and said, I don't want Batman's attorney, and he said that because that was the movie playing at the theater at the time, Batman. So he made that connection right away, May said.

May said one of the arguments in the competency process was that Dear wouldnt cooperate with his attorney on day one.

One of the things that happened when we were when they were on the stand in the competency hearing, and I asked the doctor, psychologist, I said, did you ever ask him, dear, if he just doesn't want this [King] attorney? You're saying he won't cooperate with his attorneys because it's clear from day one he didn't want this attorney and in my recollection is he said no, we never asked him that, May said.

Dear also repeatedly refused medication to restore himself to competency. In his federal case, his legal team filed numerous appeals on his right to refuse medication. The appeals made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they declined to take on the case. Eventually, a federal judge ruled for him to be forcibly medicated, that process began earlier this year.

In September, a federal evaluator ruled Dear incompetent and said he was likely not restorable. At a hearing for Dears state case in November, prosecutors said a process was underway to have Dear civilly committed to a federal mental health facility. It would have meant Dear would go to a federal facility for treatment.

May said he had wondered during the time he was a prosecutor on the case if there was a change in philosophy at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo leading to the consistent incompetent rulings.

Quite frankly, in the end, psychologists, psychiatrists, it's their opinion, May said.

Dears girlfriend was in the hospital in Woodland Park, thats when May said he became focused on Planned Parenthood.

He saw a sign about Planned Parenthood on the road, and all of a sudden, it made him focus that that day, he was going to do something about it, May said.

May said Dear couldnt locate the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs and at one point drove in front of the El Paso County Sheriffs Office with plans to attack there. May said Dear had planned to drive to a clinic in Canon City and instead called the clinic and got the address for the Colorado Springs location.

The victims in the case never got the chance to hear Dear address them directly, he spoke out in court multiple times alluding to his motivation for the shooting. May said the motivation was clear: he wanted to go after Planned Parenthood.

He's been focused on Planned Parenthood, probably for decades. He clearly made it clear that one of his heroes was somebody who attacked a Planned Parenthood down south and just pled guilty to the penalties, May said.

According to an arrest affidavit, Dear thought very highly of Paul Hill, who murdered an Dr. John Britton, an abortion provider in Florida in 1994. Dear had also previously super glued all of the locks at a Planned Parenthood in South Carolina

The fact that Dear died before victims got their day in court is something that weighs on May.

The victims have waited and waited and waited. So I got to think this is a sudden ending for them. They never did get to that guilt stage, which they deserved and which Robert Dear was, quite frankly, trying to do, May said,

In 2015, the death penalty was still a punishment for Colorado defendants, state lawmakers repealed it in 2020. The Department of Justice ruled in 2020 he would not face the death penalty for federal charges he faced either.

In the end, he's exactly where he ought to be, May said.

The admitted gunman in the attack on the Nov. 27 2015 Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood died Saturday, nearly 10 years to the day since the shooting.

Robert Dear was being held at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.

While the shooting happened a decade ago, Dear never even made a formal plea, despite yelling out in a 2015 court hearing Im guilty. Theres no trial!.

His case was defined by a competency process that caused challenges for prosecutors at the state and federal level.

This was kind of an odd case that he came in day one wanting to plead guilty, willing to take the penalties associated with that, Dan May, the former 4

Judicial District Attorney who was one of the original prosecutors on the case said.

May was driving his car Tuesday when he heard Dear died on his cars radio.

I was kind of shocked, I kind of did a double take. I actually pulled over and looked at my phone and said, Robert Dear died? May recalled.

Ten years and no plea or trial for the self-proclaimed gunman.

Details of the case have been limited in the last decade, which is typical for cases prior to trial, but it was also intentional on Mays part. He said he wanted to make sure there were no leaks, he met with individual police officers after the shooting to set the tone that there would be no leaks to the press.

Its one of the most buttoned up cases Ive had, but its sort of setting that tone that night, because you see on these cases nationally, they just leak, leak, leak and that does not not help a prosecutor's case. It doesn't help the defense attorneys case, doesn't help the judge in the courtroom. We actually kept a pretty good lid on it starting that night, May said.

Five years on the case while in office, he was frustrated the case didnt have a finish.

I thought it would get to trial. Robert Dear always wanted to plead guilty, May said.

May dealt with a myriad of frustrations with the court consistently ruling him incompetent to stand trial in his state case, where he faced nearly 200 counts including first degree murder.

We felt pretty confident that he was going to be found competent at some point and that we would have a trial, May said, we tried a lot of different tactics around that.

May said at one point Dear was teaching competency classes at the State Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo, where he spent years. The classes were education for patients to try and return them to competency, May said Dear was a teacher for those classes, despite a judge repeatedly ruling him incompetent.

We put that on even as evidence at one of our hearings that he was teaching the class, saying in our opinion, we felt he was competent enough to go ahead and make decisions on this case.

During his first in-person court appearance, Dear made numerous outbursts including calling out his public defender, Dan King. King had previously represented James Holmes, who earlier thate year had been found guilty of killing 12 people at an Aurora movie theater in 2012.

When he [King] walked in, I think Dear recognized him immediately, looked at him and said, I don't want Batman's attorney, and he said that because that was the movie playing at the theater at the time, Batman. So he made that connection right away, May said.

May said one of the arguments in the competency process was that Dear wouldnt cooperate with his attorney on day one.

One of the things that happened when we were when they were on the stand in the competency hearing, and I asked the doctor, psychologist, I said, did you ever ask him, dear, if he just doesn't want this [King] attorney? You're saying he won't cooperate with his attorneys because it's clear from day one he didn't want this attorney and in my recollection is he said no, we never asked him that, May said.

Dear also repeatedly refused medication to restore himself to competency. In his federal case, his legal team filed numerous appeals on his right to refuse medication. The appeals made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they declined to take on the case. Eventually, a federal judge ruled for him to be forcibly medicated, that process began earlier this year.

In September, a federal evaluator ruled Dear incompetent and said he was likely not restorable. At a hearing for Dears state case in November, prosecutors said a process was underway to have Dear civilly committed to a federal mental health facility. It would have meant Dear would go to a federal facility for treatment.

May said he had wondered during the time he was a prosecutor on the case if there was a change in philosophy at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo leading to the consistent incompetent rulings.

Quite frankly, in the end, psychologists, psychiatrists, it's their opinion, May said.

Dears girlfriend was in the hospital in Woodland Park, thats when May said he became focused on Planned Parenthood.

He saw a sign about Planned Parenthood on the road, and all of a sudden, it made him focus that that day, he was going to do something about it, May said.

May said Dear couldnt locate the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs and at one point drove in front of the El Paso County Sheriffs Office with plans to attack there. May said Dear had planned to drive to a clinic in Canon City and instead called the clinic and got the address for the Colorado Springs location.

The victims in the case never got the chance to hear Dear address them directly, he spoke out in court multiple times alluding to his motivation for the shooting. May said the motivation was clear: he wanted to go after Planned Parenthood.

He's been focused on Planned Parenthood, probably for decades. He clearly made it clear that one of his heroes was somebody who attacked a Planned Parenthood down south and just pled guilty to the penalties, May said.

According to an arrest affidavit, Dear thought very highly of Paul Hill, who murdered an Dr. John Britton, an abortion provider in Florida in 1994. Dear had also previously super glued all of the locks at a Planned Parenthood in South Carolina

The fact that Dear died before victims got their day in court is something that weighs on May.

The victims have waited and waited and waited. So I got to think this is a sudden ending for them. They never did get to that guilt stage, which they deserved and which Robert Dear was, quite frankly, trying to do, May said,

In 2015, the death penalty was still a punishment for Colorado defendants, state lawmakers repealed it in 2020. The Department of Justice ruled in 2020 he would not face the death penalty for federal charges he faced either.

In the end, he's exactly where he ought to be, May said.

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When Michael Hagiwara recounts the events of Nov. 27, 2015 he hardly thinks of himself as a hero. For him, his actions were out of instinct.

I have spent so many years in health care, so many years as a nurse in the emergency department, I felt compelled to do something, Hagiwara said.

He was getting his eyeglasses fitted inside a medical office building with his daughter who was three at the time when all of a sudden a woman rushed inside.

I think her exact words were, Oh my God he has a gun and hes shooting people, at first I thought she must be mistaken, this is a very poorly timed joke, but looking at her face I realized that she was in significant distress, something bad had happened, Hagiwara said.

A gunman had opened fire in the parking lot of the Planned Parenthood clinic and made his way inside the clinic. Hagiwara was next door inside the office building.

Hagiwara said the doors were locked at the eye doctors office and they sheltered in place.

I was thinking more about, what am I going to do if something bad happens in here? How am I going to get my daughter out? Hagiwara said.

He looked out the door into the lobby and saw a woman stumble inside and fall down onto the title floor of the lobby. Thats when he realized she was a shooting victim and it was time for him to do something. At the time, Hagiwara was an ER charge nurse at Penrose Hospital.

My experience and my training told me, you cant just let someone bleed out on the floor and not try to do something about it, Hagiwara said, please believe me, Im not trying to play a hero, but I have spent so many years in health care, so many years as a nurse in the emergency department, I felt compelled to do something.

He left his daughter with a medical assistant in the eye clinic and went to take care of the woman who had been shot.

Generally when someone has a penetrating wound like a gunshot, youre controlling bleeding, replacing fluids, things like that, and I didnt have any of that available, Hagiwara said.

He would take his down jacket off and he applied that to the wound and held pressure. While he was helping the woman, he realized his own safety could be at risk.

I was out in the lobby with the victim, just the two of us. And I remember looking at this back door, and I just remember, like, wow, we're really in exposed position here. If this person comes in through this door, this is going to be a tragedy, Hagiwara said.

A doctor and a medical assistant from a family practice upstairs came down to help.

I asked them, do we have any wound care supplies? Do we have any IV gear? Hagiwara recalled. The medical assistant returned with an IV gear and they were able to apply a dressing to the wound.

There was really no chaos, there was no screaming. It was nothing like you would see on TV, Hagiwara said.

Time passed for Hagiwara and he started to get concerned for the womans safety.

The SWAT team came in with their gear, and you know, the ballistic shields and we actually used that as a stretcher to move them out to this armored vehicle, he said.

A Colorado Springs Police Officer was outside the front door of the medical office building, Hagiwara saw another man who was crawling, Hagiwara made eye contact with him and brought him inside to get help.

His experience as an emergency room nurse kicked in to high gear, he said he realized he was adept at prioritizing what needed to be done, like stopping the bleeding.

You look at it more as a clinical scientific exercise, though also you have to keep your compassion. You have to remember that your patient is also a human being, that has a mother, they have a father, theyve got a spouse, theyve got kids, you have to keep that in mind, Hagiwara said.

Hagiwara was honored for his quick actions at a Colorado Springs City Council meeting in January 2016 where he was credited with saving lives.

Years later, he still rejects the term hero.

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Colorados scenery for many people provides solace, an escape, a reminder of the beauty of the world.

For Paul Markovsky, the mountains in Colorado Springs are a reminder of his late wife Jennifer who was among three people killed in a shooting at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood in 2015.

She often said she was homesick in Colorado until she looked at the mountains, Markovsky said, if it was one of those gloomy days when the clouds were just hanging over the peaks, but you could see the bottom of them, she said it reminded her of Hawaii except when you drive up high you dont see the ocean.

Jennifer Markovsky was born and raised in Hawaii, which was where she and Paul met when he was active duty Army. She was just weeks away from her 36

birthday in 2015 when a gunman took her life.

A friend asked for help, and she couldn't refuse, Markovsky said that was the type of person she was. It didnt matter who you were, if you asked for help, she would give it to you, it didnt matter how little or how much she knew you, she would help.

Jennifer and Paul were at a club when she caught his eye on the dance floor in Hawaii.

I came up to her and started dancing and talking, next thing you know, Im already exchanging phone numbers and setting up the next date, Markovsky said, she was attractive and just seemed like a fun person to get to know. The couple got married in Las Vegas six months later.

It didnt take long to figure out [she was the one], Markovsky said.

She was the type of person who would easily just go with the flow, Markovsky said, they often went hiking or road trips. Jennifer Markovsky had a son before meeting Paul, he and Jennifer had a daughter together, who is now 16. Markovsky said his daughter constantly reminds of his late wife.

My daughter looks so much like her, Markovsky said, its almost like looking at my wife when she was a teenager, she looks more and more like her every day.

It was Black Friday in 2015 when Jennifer Markovsky didnt come home. Paul Markovsky wouldnt learn what had happened until the following morning.

She didnt come back, I tried to call around and see like our friends, if anybody knew and then early in the morning I started searching. [I] went to her friends house, there was nobody there, went to the police station in Stetson Hills, I saw on the news some clips of the shooting and thats when I started to suspect the worst, thats when I kind of figured out thats why she didnt come home the night before, Markovsky said.

Then the police broke the news to him.

I felt like the floor just fell out from under my feet, Markovsky said. The days following were hectic.

It almost felt like the world was ready to move on and just keep spinning and accepting what happened, it demanded decisions, answers and important things like how was the burial going to be handled, details like the casket, Markovsky said.

Family members like his brother-in-law stepped in to help make funeral arrangements while Markovsky grieved.

I was just going, like, come on, Im not ready for this, Im not ready to let go, Markovsky said.

Then there were journalists who wanted to get their story. Markovsky said he did not want any part of the attention the case was getting, but he felt that reporters werent leaving him alone.

At one point, one particularly aggressive reporter told me, you know were not going to stop until we get our story, Markovsky said. [I thought] what its not going to stop?

Five days later, a larger mass shooting and attempted bombing happened in San Bernardino, California. 14 people died and 22 others were injured. Markvosky said that took attention from reporters away from him.

I thought, whoa, this is what it takes for me to get my peace? I didnt want anybody to die for it, but thats crazy, Markovsky said.

The years since the tragedy have brought the stages of grief and more for Markovsky like denial and anger.

I refer to him as an it because in my mind, you know, who would, who would kill innocent people simply to prove a point? It cannot be a real person, Markovsky said.

Markovsky said it took him years to make peace with his wifes death, I realized it was like drinking poison, it was only killing me from the inside, [it] was holding me back.

When Markovsky learned for Robert Dears death this week he said, its a shame that it just dragged on for so long.

Dear never made a guilty or not-guilty plea as his competency was in question for the last decade in both state and federal courts.

I'm closer to closure, but, you know, there's not going to be a real closure, with something with someone like this who can't even acknowledge what he's done, Markovsky said.

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Ten years ago, Ozy Licano found himself in the crosshairs of gunfire.

Licano needed to run an errand from his home in Rocky Ford to the Costco in Colorado Springs, his neighbors asked for a ride as one of them had an appointment at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood.

He was looking at his phone inside his car when all of a sudden he heard what he described as a commotion.

Watching it unfold was like, how hideous can a human being be to do that? Licano said.

He looked up and saw a man crawling through the entryway of the Planned Parenthood, glass shattering around him.

Im like, what? I was so confused, Licano said.

Then he saw a different man, this one with a gun.

I saw him walking up, just marching like a robot, Licano said, I was confused and I kept hearing the shots inside.

He got out of the car, trying to figure out what was going on, and then got back inside, and backed out of the parking lot.

As I turned, there he was, Licano said, he was looking at me and he was aiming and then he just started firing and I just gunned it and I was able to get out and go.

Licano says the air was filled with gunpowder as he saw his windshield crack. One of the bullets narrowly missed Licano.

The last one of the last bullets kind of landed right in my seat. Just barely missed my kidney by, like, two inches, Licano said.

It's kind of weird, you know, how] you see in the movies how the evil people, their pupils turn black or the whole eyeball turn? That's what happened with him when I saw him, Licano said.

Licano drove to a nearby King Soopers, leaving his car riddled with bullets and his face peppered from glass shards. He remembers looking into his rearview mirror and seeing blood spurting out, but he didnt know where it was coming from.

I got to that King Soopers and got out, and I think I thought I said, I think I've been hit, I don't knowapparently my blood pressure is just so high from the excitement, and I had had cut my lip and that's what was bleeding, Licano said.

Licano said he sat inside of that King Soopers while an off-duty nurse tended to his wounds. Afterwards, he was taken to the hospital and released later that day.

It wasnt until later that Licano found out how many people were hurt. Those killed include: University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) Police Officer, Garrett Swasey, Iraq War Veteran KeArre M. Stewart, and a mother and wife of two, Jennifer Markovsky. Nine other people were also shot, including five police officers.

10 years later, Licano is still trying to wrap his head around how he survived.

Why them and not me? I don't understand. It just doesn't seem fair, Licano said.

After a 5-hour standoff, law enforcement officials arrested 57-year-old, Robert Dear. Since then, his competency has remained in question, keeping the case from going to trial.

Licano attended the first couple court proceedings. During one of the hearings, Licano said he yelled at Dear.

I think I called him an inbred and, you know, and he's stupid and, you know, driven by a stupid religion. You can't decide to take people's lives like that. You're never going to get away from this, Licano said.

A decade later, hes still trying to make sense of several questions, including why the case has not gone to trial.

He was competent enough to do and think about all the details and actually take lives. He was competent in all of that to decide to do that and carry it out. What now all of a sudden he's not competent and we have to feed him and pay for his existence, Licano said.

Licano said he doesnt think much about the shooting, but he thinks of the victims and wrestles with the guilt of wondering if he could have done more.

I just felt helpless. I wish I could have just grabbed him and did something, you know, but I couldn't, Licano said

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Opera 2030 is performing

, an opera that's described as exploring the "...resilience, vulnerability, and sacrifice of military families."

Based on the accounts of Gold Star Families, the opera tells the story of the spouses of military members waiting to hear if their husbands have been killed in action.

The production company, Opera 2030, is a partnership comprised of Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Art Song Colorado, and Chamber Orchestra of the Springs; with their inaugural performance held this summer, the group is committed to utilizing opera to deliver powerful and emotional stories over a course of five years.

is being performed at Lewis Palmer High School on November 23rd at 3:00 pm; tickets and additional information can be found here.

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