Bishop Castle and more-April 13, 2012

Today is one of those days when words fail me. It was wonderful, interesting, exciting, beautiful, fascinating and more. Plus we met one of the most unique people we've meet so far. Jerry says Jim is the most outstandingly unusual person he has ever met in his life. The man is Jim Bishop, owner of Bishop Castle in the San Isabel National Forest, south and west of Colorado City and Rye. I hope to keep this brief but I don't know how to do that. First of all, neither of us has ever been to this part of Colorado. It is just spectacular and like nothing we've seen in this state. If ever we want to go Aspen viewing in the fall, this will be the place we will go. First I have to tell you that we stopped in Rye to mail something to Alabama. The man in front of us who appeared to be around 35 years old was trying to write a check for a post office box. He had to ask the clerk how to spell "twenty". I think we both nearly fainted. He was a local person known to other people. He was obviously employed. The irony to the whole situation is that the post office in Rye is directly across the street from the high school. "Nuff said. We continued on up into the mountains in search of the Bishop Castle. First there was San Isabel lake.

Yes, that's snow on the opposite shore of the lake

Next we saw turkeys crossing the road. I only managed to get one picture taken before they ran off into the woods. Jerry said it's the first time he has ever seen turkeys in Colorado. They were very big and there were about 10 of them together.

Yep, more snow on the side of the road

We kept going to an altitude of 9000 ft and there was the gigantic castle. Jim Bishop is sole builder. He is an ironworker by trade, has an unlimited imagination and is such a wonderfully colorful character. We were fortunate to have him greet us along with his spaniel, Betsy. We talked for about half an hour before we started our climb. Here's what we saw when we got out of the car.

This work of art reaches 160 feet into the

colorful Colorado sky

We did attempt to climb to the top but gave out about half way up. I would have gone to the top if Jerry had wanted to, but he said we should go back down to earth. Please look at this picture and notice a person standing on one of the walkways.

Can you see him? He's in the round turret

Then there is the dragon head at the top. It is made from scrap steel and belches smoke when it is working.

The bottom jaw is 7 feet long

As you can imagine this could go on forever, but I'll spare you any more details. All I can say is that if you are ever in this area, this is a must see. It's free and if you are lucky you will meet the delightful owner and true patriot, Jim Bishop.

Tomorrow and Sunday are due to be very cold and nasty so we may stay here until Monday. We were going to move on to Colorado Springs, but their temps are lower than here. We are just praying for the wind to stop soon. It is irritating but did not spoil a wonderful day today.