RIP Stupid Bird

I finished packing my stuff on thursday.  I've now got just a 5'x8' storage unit and that's in my car.  It's nice to not have so much stuff.

super stable packing job.

After a fairly sketchy night spent sleeping in a residential grand-junction neighborhood, we made it down to castleton towers area.

On the way, I managed to hit both a mole/mouse type thing as well as some stupid bird that decided to run across the road.  Had the bird flown across the road, as it should have, it would still be alive. Anyway... we went down to the north chimney route on castleton tower.

The tower, as seen from the roofless pit toilette. Definitely the toilette with the best view that I know of. 

The tower is about and hour or so hike in.  It's not that long of a hike, but you have to climb up these choss/sand/gravel slopes which is exhausting.  The climb is three pitches.

The second/third pitches follow this huge chimney... hence the name of the route.

On top....

A selfie I guess.  I hear thats what the kids are al doing these days.

Headed down.

 The desert is in bloom this time of year which is really nice.  Lots of yellows and purples and pinks everywhere, and it's greener than I have ever seen it.  Also a bunch of lizards, which I'll identify when i get a chance.

I've seen these before, but this time they all have orange/red colored heads.

 So a successful day, and aside from all the small animals I keep murdering with my car a successful start.  We are headed out in a sec to get food for next week.  The plan is to spend all week in indian creek, so no cell/internet till next weekend.

For some reason people don't like my sandals.  I think they are just fantastic.