But the Chicago-area mom ran into repeated roadblocks — federal privacy laws — that turned an already stressful time into a nightmare.

Her son, Vance Hughes, had recently turned 18, meaning she no longer had unfettered access to his medical records or his health insurance and financial information.

“It really got me thinking, ‘Gosh, what are we going to do if something happens when he’s at college and he needs our support? Will we be able to give it to him legally?'” Jennifer Hughes said. “I know it sounds crazy, but that was a concern.”

Hughes’ fears were quelled by a company with a name that resonated: Mama Bear Legal Forms. For under $100, college-bound kids can sign privacy waivers, granting their parents access to their medical records and educational information, including grades.

Technological advances have increasingly given parents the ability to track their children’s locations and technology usage. Mama Bear taps into a market of parents accustomed to this vigilance who realize their access changes when their kids turn 18 and are subject to medical- and student-privacy laws.

Mama Bear’s website provides a bundle of health and financial power-of-attorney forms, a release waiving the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, which prevents parents from accessing their child’s educational records once they turn 18, and a release waiving the student’s federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, medical-privacy rights.

Representatives of the Nebraska-based company did not respond to interview requests.

Mama Bear, which is not a law firm and doesn’t offer legal advice, markets itself as a solution for anxious parents to “feel confident knowing you can support your college-bound child.”

“It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind,” said Ruth Epps, a Littleton mom whose son at the University of Colorado Boulder signed Mama Bear legal forms.

Chatter about Mama Bear’s services pops up every few weeks in CU-related Facebook groups, where parents crowdsource questions about their children’s dorm-room assignments, ask where they can order soup for a sick kid, and find out which classes are best.

Parents on Facebook wrote that their social media feeds were filled with Mama Bear ads and posts wanting to know more from families who have used the services. Others replied that the company’s offerings felt like the answer to a problem they didn’t know they had yet.

It was a problem Hughes knew intimately. The professional blogger at mommyevolution.com said her son’s mountain biking accident opened her eyes to an issue that hadn’t been on her radar.

Vance Hughes is headed to CU Boulder this fall to study psychology — and ski in his downtime.

When his mom approached him about signing the Mama Bear documents to give her access to his health, financial and educational records, he said it was a no-brainer.

He knew the trouble his mom had been through dealing with his insurance after his biking accident and wanted to prevent that headache while allowing his parents more control over his medical decisions should an emergency happen again.

“The biggest thing for me is my mom can still hold my hand and help me through my formative years of becoming an adult as long as I need help in the future,” Vance Hughes said. “I don’t see the harm in it.”

Vance Hughes said he has a great relationship with his mom. He couldn’t imagine her using her new legal access to pry into his life willy-nilly.

“She’ll probably only look if I’m really, really struggling, and that will allow her to be like, ‘What can I do to help you?'” he said.

Jennifer Hughes agreed. Her son knows she wouldn’t misuse her new power, she said, and she knows he would willingly discuss his grades without her having to snoop.

“You think about your kid being an adult, but he’s still your kid, and they may need your assistance,” she said. “It’s not about making sure you keep a thumb on them. It’s that in case of an emergency, you can support them in the best way they need. He’s going to college to be his own person, and this is a great place for him to start learning how to adult.”

‘A one-size-fits-all approach’

Jennifer Hendricks, a CU Boulder law professor and co-director of the Juvenile and Family Law Program, wasn’t as sold on Mama Bear Legal Forms.

It wasn’t so much the medical directive or health care power of attorney that concerned her, although she noted it was more likely a parent would need those forms for themselves than for their children.

What worried Hendricks was what she described as fear-based marketing and a potential overreach in signing away students’ FERPA and HIPAA rights.

These forms go beyond allowing parents to have a say if a medical emergency strikes, she said. They could inform mom and dad that their child is talking to a therapist, taking birth control or going to the health center for a nasty hangover, Hendricks said.

“What I’m seeing is really infantilizing the adult children by having the mom prepare everything and then just say ‘sign this,'” Hendricks said.

Colorado-based family law attorney Rich Harris said he’s had conversations with his own family about whether they should consider some of these legal forms for their college-aged children. He advised talking to legal experts rather than outsourcing to a one-size-fits-all internet option.

“There’s a trend in these do-it-yourself legal form companies,” Harris said. “I’ve been cautioning people for years to be very, very careful about them because they purport to give you a one-size-fits-all approach for a super low fee and offer very little legal customization.”

Plus, Hendricks said, there are existing, free medical and university release forms allowing students to decide which parts of their lives their parents can access. For example, university FERPA waivers allow parents and kids to sign off on parents having access to their students’ financial information — useful for parents who are paying their kids’ tuition or handling financial aid forms.

“Parents have been trained to have a real sort of dystopian level of surveillance over their children, and this is a company trying to make money off of profiting off that anxiety and the need to monitor and surveil rather than to prepare their child to be an adult,” Hendricks said. “The company is playing on this fear that something terrible could happen and you won’t be able to help your kid.”

‘A gradual roll into adulthood’

Epps, the Littleton mom, felt her fear realized after her son got sick while at CU Boulder. He didn’t know how to advocate for himself when he went to the doctor, she said, and he didn’t say much when she asked how his appointment went. She tried to call the university to learn more, but was told she couldn’t access his medical information.

Epps’ son ended up developing pneumonia and needed to come home to get better, missing about a month of school, she said.

“Now that he has Mama Bear in place, I can talk to anyone,” she said. “Which would hopefully prevent something like that from happening in the future. I would have known had they said his oxygen levels are low that things were bad.”

Yet Epps would not define herself as a “mama bear.” Instead, she said she hails from the “suck it up, buttercup” line of parenting.

However, when she saw Mama Bear all over her social media feeds, she said it felt like the answer to anxieties that ramped up after her son’s sickness.

“I cannot recommend enough that people do it because you will have no authority, and it happens the day they turn 18,” Epps said. “There’s no grace period. There’s no, ‘Oh, let’s help you get used to this.’ It’s 18, and you’re cut off.”

Epps said she doesn’t track her son’s grades, but that it’s a nice feature to have just in case. Plus, she said the whole thing is a good deal because it doesn’t expire until her son revokes it, meaning she doesn’t have to pay some kind of annual fee.

She said she didn’t have much of a conversation with her son about the paperwork.

“I think I just said ‘sign this,'” she said. “I just don’t think they understand, to go from having someone who makes all of your medical appointments for you and manages your prescription drugs to being completely alone — they don’t understand that it’s so sudden. We’re covering his tuition and living expenses, so there’s a gradual roll into adulthood. It’s not like that for this. They’re so strict about privacy laws.”

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The new degree program, Mariachi Performance and Culture, is the first of its kind in Colorado, blending musical performance, cultural studies and business.

“What we’re really trying to create here is the Juilliard of mariachi,” said Philip Ficsor, MSU Denver music professor and one of the faculty members who helped develop the program, in a university publication. “That’s our goal in Denver.”

The degree began as a student mariachi club founded by music professor Lorenzo Trujillo, a lifelong musician and cultural advocate, that grew into a class and blossomed from there.

The classes are intended to teach students not just to play mariachi music but to understand where the music came from, what it means and how it impacts the culture.

Classes include music theory, voice courses, guitar, Chicano history, Spanish, contemporary Mexican literature, principles of marketing and introduction to business, to name a few.

MSU Denver has been a mariachi trailblazer over the years.

The university sponsored the first youth all-state mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Estelares de Colorado, in 2023. In 2016, Trujillo told The Denver Post he was training his mariachi students to go forth and spread their musical and cultural expertise among Denver’s youth to pique their interest.

Ruby Godoy Flores, a student and mariachi ensemble secretary, told the university publication that the major represents belonging.

“There’s nothing like it in Colorado,” she said. “It’s going to bring in a lot of people, not just from here but from other states, too. Some people might not want to go to Texas or New Mexico. Now, they have another option.”

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That was the way the Colorado state poet laureate, queer activist and internationally touring spoken-word artist said they wanted to leave this Earth, according to their loved ones — with a life full of love so big and enduring, it couldn’t be contained.

Gibson, 49, died early Monday morning in their Boulder home surrounded by their wife Megan Falley, four ex-girlfriends, their parents, dozens of friends and three beloved dogs, according to an announcement on their Facebook page.

They were diagnosed with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer in 2021.

The message from Gibson’s wife and family said one of the last things they said was, “I (expletive) loved my life.”

Readers and fans of Gibson’s work — poetry books and spoken-word collections — offered an outpouring of love, grief and touching tributes Monday about how the poet’s words found them at just the right time. Some said Gibson’s work saved them, while others said it gave them permission to be their authentic selves.

Gibson was a native of Maine who moved to Colorado in the late 1990s. In 2023, Gov. Jared Polis announced that Gibson had been named Colorado’s 10th poet laureate, a role created to promote poetry appreciation in the state and honor local wordsmiths. At the time, Gibson said they hoped to bring poetry to the masses.

“Renowned for inspiring poetry, advocacy for arts in education, and unique ability to connect with the vast and diverse poetry lovers of Colorado, Andrea was truly one of a kind and will be deeply missed by personal friends as well (as) all who were touched by their poetry,” Polis said in a statement Monday. “My thoughts go out to Andrea’s loved ones during this difficult time.”

Gibson was recently the subject of the award-winning documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” which follows the poet and their wife as they navigate the cancer diagnosis, love and art. The film, directed by Ryan White, won the Sundance Film Festival’s Festival Favorite Award this year and is scheduled to air on Apple TV+ this fall.

The film includes an original song written by Gibson, Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile. During a screening at Sundance in January that left much of the audience in tears, Gibson said they didn’t expect to live long enough to see the documentary.

Bareilles shared a photo on social media Monday of herself wearing a gold necklace with the word “Andrea” in cursive. Gibson was “a wonder to behold and be held by,” Bareilles wrote. “This one is forever.”

Love. Loss. Illness. Hope. Social justice. Gender. Gibson’s writing spanned the gamut of emotions, making readers laugh one line and weep the next.

Their work — immortalized in YouTube videos and on vinyl records, and tattooed on people’s bodies — garnered fans across the globe.

Jacy Deck, 46, found Gibson’s work a few years ago, buying the 2021 book “You Better Be Lightning” first, then snapping up all the work that came before it. Her copies are well-loved with earmarks and highlights, and annotations throughout.

The Oklahoma resident drove hours to Denver last year to watch Gibson perform at the Paramount Theatre with comedian and writer Tig Notaro. While here, Deck got a tattoo to commemorate the evening when a theater full of people became family.

“It was not a small theater, but it was amazingly intimate,” Deck said. “For the time they were performing, we were not strangers.”

Deck had a Gibson line — “Grief astronomer, adjust the lens” — permanently inked on her skin to remind her that sometimes all you needed was a change of perspective.

“At different times in my life, I’ve been both the astronomer and the person needing a different perspective,” she said.

When Deck heard about Gibson’s death, she said she burst into tears. She took the rest of the day off work, too rattled to continue.

“Their work is heart-wrenching, and I mean that in the best way possible,” Deck said. “It’s heartbreaking in a good way. It cracks you open so you can love more. Like most great writers, it feels intensely personal yet universal at the same time.”

Floridian Alaina Bruni, 28, told The Denver Post that she found Gibson’s work as an angsty teenager. Gibson’s poems were raw and real, Bruni said, and spoke to her in a way she didn’t know poetry could. She found herself captivated by grainy YouTube videos of Gibson’s famed slam poetry.

“The way they spoke made me feel seen,” Bruni said.

Gibson got Bruni interested in poetry and the arts. Bruni had the pleasure of watching Gibson perform live a few times over the years and covets the signed books she will forever treasure.

“The Nutritionist” is Bruni’s favorite poem by Gibson. It begins, “The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables.”

“I’ll think of them every time I eat carrots,” Bruni said.

In a 2023 interview with The Post, Gibson said their cancer diagnosis allowed them to tap into how the “brevity of this life” gifted them “awe and joy and astonishment.”

Gibson wrote extensively about death and grief. It becomes difficult to memorialize Gibson without referring back to their own work.

“Not long ago, Andrea wrote a poem titled ‘Love Letter From the Afterlife,'” their loved ones wrote on Facebook. “In it, they offered this line: ‘I am more here than I ever was before. I am more with you than I ever could have imagined.’ Today, and all days forward, we hope you feel Andrea’s enormous spirit and immense presence beside you.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The 18-year-old graduate of Denver’s East High School interned earlier this year at a laboratory on the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, where he and his peers evaluated whether bio-fortified maize could help hungry Guatemalan children.

The potentially life-saving research was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal agency that humanitarian aid programs relied on to finance their work. The Trump administration dismantled USAID this spring, putting millions of lives at risk worldwide, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet.

McGregor’s project lost funding. He nearly lost his internship position, too, but the university found an alternative source to pay for it.

As McGregor prepares to attend Brown University this fall with aspirations of becoming a doctor, he said he’s bracing for more federal interference with his education.

“I’m concerned with what my college experience may look like, especially with funding cuts like I’ve already seen firsthand,” he said. “It’s discouraging for people of color, but we will not stop.”

Three Black students who received scholarships from the Sachs Foundation — a Colorado-based nonprofit supporting Black communities — told The Denver Post about their experiences entering college as the Trump administration works to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs intended to give them equal footing to thrive in college.

Leaders of the foundation, unlike companies scaling back DEI initiatives amid federal pressure, say they’re not deterred from continuing their mission.

McGregor said he was alarmed to see the president of the United States threatening to slash funding or investigate colleges and schools in an effort to eradicate the sorts of DEI programs that helped him and other students of color find parity with their white peers so that they had the same opportunities to succeed.

“It has motivated me to prove myself and serve as an example,” McGregor said. “Even when you take DEI away, we will still figure out a way to excel.”

Not backing down

The Trump administration took aim at DEI in schools and colleges shortly after the inauguration in January, threatening to withhold federal funding from institutions unless they eliminated initiatives supporting diversity, equity and inclusion.

Directives from the U.S. Department of Education in February said any programs that treat students differently on the basis of race to achieve “nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice or equity” were illegal under Supreme Court precedent.

In April, a federal judge blocked the government from enforcing these directives after a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union accused the Trump administration of providing “unconstitutionally vague” guidance and violating teachers’ First Amendment rights.

Regardless, Colorado universities acknowledged changing their diversity initiatives to avoid losing federal funding. The University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs campus was among more than 50 universities under federal investigation for alleged racial discrimination under Trump’s directives.

Meanwhile, researchers have found that the disparities in the number of Black and Latino students admitted to elite colleges and universities have widened over the last 40 years, according to a University of California, Berkeley study released in 2024.

The study found that, despite more students from all races going to college, Black and Latino students were increasingly less likely to attend top-tier, four-year colleges. The disparity remained significant, even when factoring in family income and parents’ education, the study found.

Between 2012 and 2022, college enrollment for Black students in the United States declined 22%, from 2.96 million students to 2.32 million, according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute.

“This suggests that the underlying issue of racial inequality in college attendance goes beyond socioeconomic measures, such as family income and parents’ education, and is intrinsically linked to race itself,” the study concluded. “It points to a systemic issue within the fabric of American education and society.”

It’s these systemic barriers that fuel Ben Ralston, CEO of the Sachs Foundation, to continue his work.

The 94-year-old organization that provides support to Black Coloradoans was founded at a time when the Ku Klux Klan ruled Denver, Ralston said, and its leaders do not plan on backing down.

“There’s a lot of trepidation right now,” Sachs said. “We wanted to make sure that everyone in our community of scholars recognized that none of the work we do is going to change any time soon. When we look at what’s happening at the federal level in reference to DEI, there is no political moment that changes our mission. There has been a historic structure put in place to exclude Black Americans and Black Coloradans from opportunities that have never been rectified. We’re not going to change that mission.”

Sarah Mohamed Ali’s academic journey in Denver has been dotted with scholarly achievements alongside adversity.

Mohamed Ali, a 2025 graduate of DSST: Cedar High School, served as an intern at Denver Health and worked as a dietary aid at an assisted living facility. The daughter of Sudanese immigrants said she was also bullied out of wearing her hijab to school in middle school.

She was selected to attend New York University’s Simons Science Exploration Program and the Yale Young Global Scholars summer program. After enduring pandemic learning and the COVID-19 lockdown, Mohamed Ali desired to reconnect with her authentic self and started wearing her hijab to school again.

The 18-year-old was accepted to Bowdoin College in Maine to study health care, but her higher education pursuits have been executed under the cloud of a federal administration targeting DEI.

“I worked really hard throughout school, and hearing about everything that was going on months into applying for college was very scary and shocking,” she said. “But I think in spite of everything that might be going on politically, there are still organizations you know you can rely on. You can still pursue your dreams.”

‘Earned my spot’

The Sachs Foundation chose 53 Black scholars in Colorado this year to receive more than $1.9 million in scholarships.

The foundation’s undergraduate and graduate scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement, financial need and character, Ralston said. The organization also provides student mentorship, youth college and career development, and educator-focused initiatives.

“In a moment where many institutions are retreating from their commitments to equity, we’re proud to stay firm in ours,” Ralston said. “The work we do is not just about scholarships — it’s about ensuring access, opportunity and belonging for Black students who are too often excluded.”

For 17-year-old Naima Criss, the Sachs Foundation offered community.

This spring, the 2025 scholars met up at Colorado College to be celebrated. Renowned author and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates shared his story with students.

Criss, a graduate of Denver’s Regis Jesuit High School, basked in the Black joy of it all.

“There’s this thing where if you’re really smart and Black, people are surprised,” Criss said. “I can just be a very chill person, and what I like is we’re all amazing and we’re all also just people hanging out and living their best lives. It’s great to be in a space where you’re celebrated but not the exception.”

Criss’ resume is lengthy already. In addition to being a Sachs scholar, she was named a Gates Scholarship winner — a prestigious award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through Girls Inc. of Metro Denver’s Leadership Out Loud program, Criss flew to the nation’s capital and lobbied Congress for more comprehensive sex education in schools. She’s also served on the Mayor’s Youth Commission

The first-generation college student worried whether federal funding cuts might impact her time at Johns Hopkins University, where she plans to study chemical engineering.

“I am still concerned about it, but what I’ve learned is you just have to take it one day at a time,” Criss said. “Just because something is scary, you can’t stop fighting for it or counting yourself out before you’ve given yourself the opportunity to try. I came here to do what I’m going to do, and I earned my spot to be there.”

Like his peers Criss and Mohamed Ali, McGregor knows what it is like to be one of the few. He was among a handful of Black students in his Fort Collins schools growing up and was pleasantly surprised to move to Denver and find more diversity in his classrooms.

McGregor wants to bring that diversity to hospitals that need physicians with varied backgrounds to better serve their patients.

Directives harming programs that help students of color only do a disservice to the industries left lacking employees who can serve the diverse populations around them, McGregor said.

“I’ve never had a physician of color, myself,” he said. “I want to break that barrier. We’ll take it one day at a time.”

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Anthony Dennis Grayson, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder by an Adams County jury after a four-day trial. Grayson faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, the news release said.

The case faced delays because of issues around the defendant’s competency, the news release said, but Grayson was found competent and chose to represent himself at trial.

In September 2016, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office responded to a stabbing at the Family Dollar Store, 7067 Pecos St. Surveillance video and witnesses revealed that Grayson confronted manager Alejandro Alvear inside the store, the news release said. After an exchange, Grayson pulled a knife and stabbed Alvear several times. Alvear was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, but he did not survive.

Witnesses said Grayson demanded money back from Alvear and threatened to stab him if he refused, the news release said. The incident was caught on a security camera. Grayson was taken into custody at the scene and later charged.

“This was a senseless act of violence in a public setting that cost a man his life,” said District Attorney Brian Mason. “Thanks to the excellent work of law enforcement, eyewitnesses, and our prosecution team, we were able to secure justice for Mr. Alvear and his family.”

Grayson’s sentencing is scheduled for July 29.

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Phil Atchue dialed 911 on Sunday evening to inform police he shot his wife the previous morning, the arrest affidavit read. He told police he would wait for them on a bus bench near his apartment at 927 S. Ivory Circle and that he was not armed.

When Aurora police arrived at the apartment, they found his wife, 61-year-old Kay Page, lying in bed, bleeding from her head. Police saw a handgun on the kitchen table. Page was pronounced dead that evening, police said.

When police found Atchue, he agreed to talk to officers without an attorney present, police said.

The 60-year-old man told Aurora police he had been fired from his job at American Sign & Barricade Company in May. He said he didn’t tell his wife about his firing, continuing to get up and leave the house at the same time.

Atchue said Page worked at Lowe’s but that the couple — who had been together for 20 years — could not survive on one income.

Atchue could not bear the thought of Page living on the streets, he said, so he planned a murder-suicide, the arrest affidavit said.

Atchue told police he stopped paying the bills and waited until they ran out of money. The morning of July 5, Atchue said he shot his wife in the head twice after writing a bad check the day prior, the arrest affidavit said.

He had planned on killing himself afterward but could not bring himself to do it, the affidavit said.

Atchue told police he rarely fought with Page and that the couple got along well.

The man told police his motive was solely financial to spare Page from homelessness.

When an Aurora detective asked Atchue if there was a reason his first and only idea to solve his financial problems was to kill his wife, Atchue said “Nope,” and then laughed, the affidavit said.

“They had no money to stay, and they had no money to move, so Phil saw no other way out of the situation,” the arrest document read.

Atchue told police he suffered from depression and was suicidal. When he bought his gun five years ago, Page told him she thought he was going to kill himself, the affidavit read.

Atchue told police Page told him not to kill himself, but that if he did, don’t take her with him, the affidavit read.

The arrest affidavit said the crime scene was consistent with Atchue’s testimony of what happened.

Atchue was arrested on charges of first-degree murder. Atchue remains in jail with no bond. His next court appearance is on Monday.

In a similar case, Englewood octogenarian Reginald Maclaren was convicted of murder in 2024 for the slaying of his wife and daughter.

Investigators accused Maclaren of killing Bethany and Ruth Jennifer with an ax, dismembering one of their bodies and putting them both in large trash cans in the living room of their home before calling police to report someone he knew had murdered them with a hammer.

Maclaren later told investigators he lost his job working with homeless people and was worried his wife and daughter would become homeless if he could not afford rent.

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The agency did not name the officer or the suspect.

Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, a Wheat Ridge Police officer patrolling Youngfield Street and West 32nd Avenue recognized a suspect with a felony warrant, the agency said. Alex Rose, spokesperson for the Wheat Ridge Police Department, said the nature of the warrant was part of the investigation and could not be released at this time.

When the officer pulled up behind the suspect, the suspect ran west beneath the Interstate 70 underpass along West 32nd Avenue, Wheat Ridge Police said.

The officer chased the suspect on foot and “a struggle ensued,” police said. The agency did not provide further information about the altercation.

The police officer shot the suspect, who was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, police said.

The First Judicial District Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting. The police officer was placed on paid administrative leave, per agency policy, and the agency has launched an internal investigation to determine whether the use of force was a policy violation, Rose said.

“To preserve the integrity of the investigation, no further public comment is available at this time,” police wrote.

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“Aurora Police is taking this seriously,” read a social media post from the law enforcement agency. “If you’re coming to shop or spend time with family — welcome. If you’re coming to cause disruption — expect to be arrested. We are operating under a zero-tolerance approach.”

Arapahoe County also canceled its Thriving CommUNITY Fair that was scheduled for 10 a.m. at the mall, according to an announcement on its webpage, which stated the decision was made in the interest of safety.

About two weeks ago, hundreds of teens descended on Northfield Mall in a coordinated event that resulted in physical fights and disruption to businesses, according to police.

The Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance closed early two weekends ago in anticipation of another planned teen “takeover.”

The Aurora Police Department said it will also be monitoring other retail locations across the city.

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Wildfires burning on thousands of acres across Colorado’s Western Slope destroyed two homes and continued to evacuate neighborhoods and close Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, local and federal officials said Friday.

Sowbelly fire

A wildfire that sparked in Mesa County on Thursday amid soaring temperatures, tinder-dry conditions and gusty winds burned into Delta and Montrose counties, prompting pre-evacuation notices for people living and camping in Escalante Canyon on Friday.

The Sowbelly fire is burning on an estimated 2,192 acres after “very active fire growth” on Thursday afternoon that sent a large smoke plume visible from U.S. 50 between Olathe and Grand Junction, according to Delta County officials and the Bureau of Land Management.

The fire, which was initially called the Boyce fire, is now burning in pinyon-juniper trees in the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Area in Delta and Mesa counties.

“Due to the narrow canyon and limited evacuation routes, the sheriff’s office is recommending any existing campers leave the (Escalante) Canyon area for campsites closer to the highway and no new camping occur in the canyon due to the wildfire,” the Delta County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook.

Local fire crews and smoke jumpers are fighting the fire, but the terrain and location has made it difficult, BLM officials said.

Mountain View fire

After destroying two homes and burning at least 60 acres in Chaffee County northwest of Buena Vista, the Mountain View fire was 100% contained Friday afternoon, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office said that containment means the fire is likely to stay within boundaries, but there is still a probability of something like weather creating conditions where the fire could escape.

“We do not completely have the fire under control yet,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. “Unfortunately, this means we will be unable to let residents back in their homes tonight. We are sorry but we need to be extra safe. We will try hard for tomorrow.”

The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation and no injuries have been reported.

“We are handling this as a criminal investigation until/unless proven otherwise,” sheriff’s officials said.

Fifty homes are in the evacuation zone surrounding the fire and utility crews are still working to restore power to the area.

Officials said they did not believe the fire had entered public lands as of Thursday evening.

South Rim fire

About 140 miles west, the South Rim fire burning in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park grew to 1,640 acres and forced mandatory evacuations in Montrose County on Friday night.

The evacuation area includes homes in the Botswick Park area, Colorado 347 starting at U.S. 50 and the K73 trail.

“Firefighters are pulling back to perform structure protection as fire behavior is increasing,” park officials said at 5:40 p.m. The South Rim fire is at 0% containment.

A second wildfire on the park’s North rim is still burning, National Parks Service spokesperson Lauren Huckle said, but it’s not requiring as many resources.

“High temperatures, very low humidity, gusty winds, and very dry vegetation across the region have led to extreme fire danger at Black Canyon,” read information from the National Park Service. 

The fire damaged some park equipment and outbuildings, but the South Rim Visitor Center is currently unscathed, fire officials said.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park remained closed Friday as fire crews fought the flames, which officials said were caused by lightning.

Visitors and staff were evacuated from the park on Thursday as the fire is burned through pinyon pine, juniper, sage and grass.

Air quality concerns

Because of the fires, moderate to heavy smoke is expected to linger in southwest Colorado, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The department issued an air quality health advisory in effect until 9 a.m. Saturday.

Impacted counties for the air quality advisory include: Saguache, San Juan, Hinsdale, Mineral, Archuleta, southern Mesa, Delta, Gunnison, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel, Dolores, Montezuma, La Plata, Rio Grande and Conejos Counties.

“If smoke is thick or becomes thick in your neighborhood, you may want to remain indoors,” the advisory said. “This is especially true for those with heart disease, respiratory illnesses, the very young, and older adults. Consider limiting outdoor activity when moderate to heavy smoke is present. Consider relocating temporarily if smoke is present indoors and is making you ill. If visibility is less than 5 miles in smoke in your neighborhood, smoke has reached levels that are unhealthy.”

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It wasn’t clear yet whether any structures were threatened as of 7:45 p.m.

The Mary Carter Greenway Trail is an 8 mile trail along the South Platte River from Chatfield State Park to Englewood.

Earlier in the day, South Metro Fire Rescue responded to several grass fires along the High Line Canal that the agency deemed suspicious. One grass fire at 1181 S. Parker Road spread to a commercial building with several businesses. All the businesses were evacuated, and the fire was under control as of 3 p.m.

Additional details about the fire were not yet provided.

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