The group “Stray Grass” takes the stage at the Palisade Bluegrass Roots Festival Saturday in Riverbend Park. Despite a drenching rain in the morning, spirits were high among the several hundred people in the audience.

Competitors in the Highline Hustle triathlon take to the water Saturday as they swim 500 meters through the water of Highline Lake, the first of three parts of the event.

Ute dancers, from right to left, Naomi McCurdy, Timina Powaukee and Lanie Chaploose perform the jingle dress dance to the accompaniment of traditional singing and drums by, from left to right, Albert Manning, Benjamin Watts and Kessley LaRose during the opening dances at the Mini Pow Wow held Saturday at the Ute Learning Garden behind the CSU Extension at the Mesa County Fairgrounds.

ix-year-old Henry White hangs out in a tree listening to the bluegrass group Missed the Boat on the opening day of the Palisade Bluegrass and Roots Festival at Riverbend Park in Palisade Friday afternoon. The festival continues through Sunday.

Members of the bluegrass group Missed the Boat perform to a crowd on the opening day of the Palisade Bluegrass and Roots Festival at Riverbend Park in Palisade Friday afternoon. The festival continues through Sunday. Don’t forget to bring a chair and bug-spray.

The daily prayer circle at the Mesa County Detention Facility attracts about thrree dozen inmates from the jail.

Local Tea Party activists Chuck Beecham, left, and Bob Cunningham wave signs at the roundabout on Main Street Friday. The GJResult/Tea Party organization is promoting a tea party at Sherwood Park where candidates the organization endorsed will speak June 27 from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.

Gordon Harbert flips a mouse pancake at the 43 Annual Kiwanis Pancake Day at two rivers Friday. Harbert has been flipping for 18 years on one of the three rotating griddles designed by longtime Kiwanis Herb Wright and Alden Spooner. The popular fundraising event nets around $50, 000 for the Grand Junction service club.

Grand Junction first responders try to rescue the driver of a red pickup after it was hit by a trash truck on U.S. Highway 6&50 just west of 24 Road. The driver of the pickup did not survive.

Sisters Dianna Jensen and June Fellhauer get emotional, after passing the same card between each other for the last 25 years.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds play to about 2,500 fans at the James M. Robb River Start Park in Fruita Thursday evening in the first of the 2010 Colorado Riverfront Concert Series with the Colorado National Monument as a back drop at sunset.

Holding a bag of sugar snap peas, Natasha Krasnow of Grand Junction digs through a basket of fresh galic as she searches for the best bulb at the Z’s Orchard booth during the first American National Bank Downtown Farmers Market of the season along Main Street.

Fifteen-month-old Ben Arellano plays in the cool water at the Splash Pad at the Lincoln Park Moyer Pool Wednesday morning Wednesday is the free day at the pool.

Ten-year-old Jordan Cole, right, sets herself up for the save as she eyes 8-year-old Tayson Maughan while he lines up his shot on the last day of the two-week Fun Hockey Summer Camp at Glacier Ice Arena Thursday.

Nate Kaup, 15,  of Glenwood Springs stands his kayak straight up in a hole at the Glenwood Whitewater park preparing to do a front loop which is a 360 degree flip. Experienced freestyle kayakers stick the front of the boat into the descending waters of a wave which flips them over. The waterpark wave changes depending on the varied flows of the river. This hole was perfect for doing a front loop.

Members of the Gladiators minor league football teams practice offensive plays Wednesday evening at Bookcliff activities center.

Kathy Inman, who manages Grand Junction Truck and Car Wash, makes some shade with her umbrella and tackles “Death Match” by Lincoln Child

Dan Bean, director of the Palisade Insectary disperses about 1,000 Tamarisk Beetles from a paper cup along the Colorado river in Grand Junction Wednesday June 9, 2010.

Jack and Dottie Merwin live in a unit in The Cottages at The Commons and one home out of the six on their cul-de-sac is empty, although several on the next block over are vacant, according to Jack Merwin. The Cottages at The Commons have 57 units, and 14 are currently open. “That’s a lot for us,” Hilltop spokeswoman Cassity Garton said.

(You might be a redneck if - you take your bedroom window air conditioner to work with you) Beat the heat? take your air conditioner to work with you like this mechanic did at Fox’s Garage on Pitkin Avenue Monday. He was just finishing up a head gasket job and moved the air where he was working.

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Dept. Search and Rescue boat team were called out Sunday afternoon on a man along the banks of the Colorado River calling for help, about 1 mile down river from Corn Lake. This man, in red life jacket was picked up by the Sheriff’s Dept. The man and a female went into the river after putting in a Corn Lake. The female swam to shore and walked back to Corn Lake. The two were in small tubes and the Colorado is running high.

Six-year-old Janae Kitzman from Grand Junction was out this afternoon on Sunday with his family at the Lincoln Park Golf Course driving range.

Mike Gibbs, left, who started the Frame Works Gallery in 1982 and Rob Kurtzman, who now runs the gallery in the main show room of the gallery. The gallery is set to close on June 30th.

Sunset Lake is one of a handful of small ponds in the Mesa Lakes group as you drive on Grand Mesa from Colorado Hwy 65, and is currently spilling with the warming temperatures.

A collection of wedding dresses is displayed at the Blue River Trading Company on Main Street.