Bluegrass legends Sam Bush, right and Del McCoury play during there sound check at the Avalon Theater Saturday afternoon before the start of there show Saturday night.

About 100 firearms supporters rally outside the Colorado Mesa University Student Center Saturday afternoon to protest the gun bill Gov. John Hickenlooper signed earlier this week.

Brad Guth from Grand Junction enjoying a ride on his ATV in the desert on BML land north of I-70 and east of 29 1/2 Road. Mount Garfield is seen in the background.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper meets this Tillie Bishop before the Govs speech at the Club 20 spring meeting in the Student Center at Colorado Mesa University Saturday afternoon.

14-year-old Kileen Miller gives a Vaulting demonstration during the Colorado West Paint Horse 2013 Expo at the Mes County Fairgrounds Saturday afternoon.

Colorado Mesa University student Kolby Gimmeson enjoying a hamburger during the benefit for some of CMU students displaced by Tuesday’s gas explosion and fire at Primerica Financial,1119 North 1st Street Saturday afternoon.

Scott Shortess of Grand Junction sharpens his juggling skills with large knives Friday afternoon while entertaining passers-by in the 500 block of Main Street in downtown Grand Junction.

Workers with the City of Grand Junction vent natural gas out of a sewage line at Walnut Avenue and Seventh Street in front of Tope Elementary School Friday morning. The school was evacuated because of the lingering presence of combustible gas.

KMSA Radio General Manager Kyle Davis stands inside the station’s studio on the campus of Colorado Mesa University. Davis is helping prove that college radio still matters in Grand Junction as 91.3 FM gives students the opportunity to become professionals.

Surprising listeners is one of the best parts of the job, says KMSA Radio programmer Frank Menapace.

A male mountain bluebird adds a splash of springlike color to a gray landscape in a canyon in Utah. In the spring, the mountain bluebird males migrate to the breeding grounds first and find a suitable nesting spot. When the females arrive later, the males try to entice the females to the site they have chosen by flying in and out of the nesting site while calling out to the female. The mountain bluebird is the state bird of Idaho.

Aging actress Norma Desperate, played by Pat Kelly, celebrates after finding out that she’s to be The Spirit of Arizona in a scene from “Sunset Trail,” a spoof of the classic 1950 movie “Sunset Boulevard” but set in the West of 1902. The Grand Junction Senior Theater will be performing the comedy at the Grand Junction High School auditorium today and Saturday with a curtain time of 7:30 p.m. A 2 p.m. matinee will also be presented on Saturday. Tickets to the productions are $10 per person at the door.

Evacuees line up by the bed of a pickup truck as XCel Energy’s Steve Piburn, right, and Fred Eggleston check addresses on an aerial map laid out on the tailgate before sending the displaced residents to their homes following a meeting at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Thursday. Grand Junction firefighters and XCel employees accompanied residents back to their houses to check for the presence of gas and to light pilot lights and restore electricity. Some were allowed to move back into their homes, while others were allowed to fetch clothing and important items before returning to their hotel rooms.

JoLynn Garcia-Tillman, owner of Jo’s Clothes Consignment at 251 Colorado Ave., holds one of the nearly 400 prom dresses donated to the Prom Dress Giveaway. This Friday and Saturday from 3-7 p.m., the dresses, plus shoes and accessories will be given to every young woman who needs one.

Jaeda Clark, 12, of Collbran runs across the grass of Sherwood Park in her stocking feet as she tries to get her kite to catch the breeze. Jaeda and her younger sisters Cherry, 6, and Shelby, 9, were each trying to fly their kites at the park before heading to the playground.

A purple flower pushes its way up in one of the planter boxes on the 400 block of Main Street Thursday afternoon, the first day of spring. After a cold long winter, flowers are just beginning to bloom.

Mauren Field meets the Easter Bunny during the Fruita Egg Scramble at the Fruita Community Center on Wednesday, March 20. Nearly 100 children had the chance to collect Easter eggs and enjoy the afternoon with family.

Two boys fill their Easter baskets with eggs at the 2013 Fruita Egg Scramble on Wednesday. The Fruita Community Center hosted the Egg Scramble to give children a chance to collect eggs and meet the Easter Bunny.

A large balanced rock with Fisher Towers in the background. The Fisher Towers are located between Moab and Cisco Utah. The towers are some of the most spectacular and difficult summits to climb in North America. Not only are the summits difficult and spectacular, but these are among the most unusual and unique summits in the world. Also of interest are the smaller towers and canyons of Onion Creek

Rubble is all that remains of the two homes destroyed on 7th Street Tuesday due to a gas leak, explosion, then fire. Several dozen residences on Seventh Street between Orchard and Elm avenues remain evacuated Wednesday afternoon as officials struggle to vent natural gas. Crews are drilling holes in the street to help the gas escape.

Roughly 20 people huddled in the parking lot of a Grand Junction church this morning were told to return to their evacuated homes — many still without gas or electricity — provided they’re deemed safe to occupy by Xcel Energy. A team of 35 Xcel workers were fanning out this morning over evacuated areas, Xcel area manager Fred Eggleston told evacuees outside Seventh-day Adventist Church, 730 Mesa Ave.

Evacuees head for safety across the lawn of a house at 1742 N. Seventh Street after the home beside it exploded following a strong odor of natural gas in the area Wednesday. The fire eventually spread to the grey house, destroying it completely.

Two injured victims wait for an ambulance with a Grand Junction police officer in the parking lot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church at the corner Seventh Street and Mesa Avenue Wednesday following the explosion of a house at 1752 N. Seventh Street on Wednesday.

The Rev. Mike Burr smiles as he conducts Sunday services at Koinonia Church, 25 and G 3/8 Road. Burr is the church’s pastor and a visionary in social justice and community building.

Police scanner reports indicate the house, south of the intersection of Seventh and Orchard, exploded around 12:50 p.m. The address of the house is believed to be 1752 N. Seventh St. Officials were concerned that more houses could ignite and are going door-to-door to tell people to evacuate.

The Rev. Mike Burr delivers the sermon to his visitors during Sunday services at Koinonia Church, 730 25 Road. Burr moved to Grand Junction in 2004 after living in Issaquah, Wash., for more than nine years. Burr plans to retire in June.

A mandatory evacuation is in progress two blocks in each direction from the intersection of Seventh Street and Orchard Avenue due to an explosion and a fire caused by a gas leak. A second house, at 1742 N. Seventh St., has caught on fire. Grand Junction Fire Department spokesman Mike Page confirms three people were taken to St. Mary’s Hospital with burn injuries.

The Rev. Mike Burr listens to a parishioner during a social hour before Sunday services at Koinonia Church. Burr was greatly influenced by liberation theology.

Smoke rises from 7th Street as GJ students are herded to Sherwood Park.

The Rev. Mike Burr smiles as he conducts Sunday services at Koinonia Church, 730 25 Road. Burr is the church’s pastor and a visionary in social justice and community building. Burr’s approach at Koinonia has been one of collaboration, he said. Burr’s church has a community garden, meditation classes, study groups, a preschool and is actively involved with the Grand Valley Interfaith Network.

Library associate Cheryl Moe leads a group of children through an interactive song with hand gestures during the morning program at the central branch of the Mesa County Public Library at First Street and Gunnison Avenue Tuesday. Moe works in the youth services department at the library.

A weathered wooden cross marks a grave overgrown with sagebrush in an old cemetery in Sego Canyon north of Thompson, Utah. Graves from the late 1800s up to a few years ago are scattered through the small graveyard, which sits atop a hill at the convergence of Sego and Thompson canyons.

Delta’s Jannna Brieze and Natalie Combs of Palisade.

Kannah Creek Brewing Company’s Matt Simpson fills a mug with Broken Oar India Pale Ale on Monday. Kannah Creek’s first Beer Week event will be held Monday at 5 p.m.

Sandhill cranes glide in for a landing in a field in a recently tilled corn field near the Escalante State Wildlife Area recently west of Delta. The birds have been spotted on their northern migration from fields outside of Fruita to the Fruitgrowers Reservoir near Eckert.

Colorado Mesa University basketball players and their fans celebrate Monday night after the Mavericks beat the Midwestern State University Mustangs to advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight Tournament in San Antonio, Texas. For story, see page 1B. See a photo gallery at GJSentinel.com.

Orchard workers begin the long season of pruning trees in an orchard east of Palisade. the trees are kept to a manageable height and density that makes picking easier.

Site of the William’s seep four miles north of Parachute at the Parachute Creek Gas Plant.

Photos by DEAN HUMPHREY/The Daily Sentinel—Grand Junction police, above and photo below, detain two men after they walked out of a house at 752 Glenwood Avenue, Grand Junction, about noon Sunday after a standoff. Police later Sunday said the two men who came out of the home were arrested in the incident: Aaron Kennedy, 41, and Nathan Kennedy, 43, both of Grand Junction.

A man is detained fro questioning after he came out of a swat surrounded home in the 700 block of Glenwood Ave.

Maria Martinez and her nephew Cruzito Gomes are blown around a bit from the windy weather on Seventh Street Sunday after they walked to the Botanical Gardens for a visit.

Joe Lacy, Leland Schmidt and Dale Holingsworth are honored in the 200 block of Main Street in a Legends Historic Sculptures of the Grand Valley for their leadership in converting the downtown into a serpentine design in the early sixties.

Sarah Rose and Melinda Mawdsley and Sarah Rose are at Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah, where some of the film “Thelma and Louise” was shot.

Melinda Mawdsley appears to be staring right at Fisher Towers in Professor Valley off Utah Highway 128.