Once in awhile I'll 'discover' something that is famous, except somehow I was oblivious to its existence, always fun. I was riding along Colorado SH 165 last August on the good 'ol GS on a smoky but otherwise very nice day. I was trying to remember if I'd ever been on this road. Coming around a curve at a pretty good clip I saw cars parked on both sides of the road and little kids running across the road. With the congestion I focused on the road as I navigated through but I saw what looked like a rock wall out of the corner of my eye. I thought what the hell was that doing way out here? So I turned around and 'discovered' Bishop Castle. Google it if you've never heard of it. It is quite a story. After the motorcycle ride, my wife and I drove to Colorado to visit our daughter a couple of weeks later and went back up there. That time, I had the pleasure of talking of with its builder Jim Bishop for a bit. He has the reputation of being something of a curmudgeon who doesn't have a lot of use for some people, but we had a good conversation. He told me about his late wife and showed me a picture of them when they were young (I told him he married out of his league and he agreed), his own health challenges and we talked about building of the castle.
Here are a few photos. My brother was carrying his drone on his Harley, so the video was made by him. I climbed up the towers, interesting enough because I am still gimpy from the hit to my leg a couple of years ago. The construction is also interesting, to say the least, with plenty of exposure out of some of the windows. Being unsteady on your feet, or nervous about heights is not recommended. Made of stone, steel, and mortar, it is an engineering marvel. You will marvel that it hasn't fallen down. While climbing the towers, (one is over 160 ft tall), don't look to closely at the welds or the expanded metal steps, broken and repaired with weaved bailing wire. And watch your head while climbing inside the towers if you are over 5 feet tall, the stone has sharp edges. But don't take that as criticism, as I admire the creation and its creator's vision.












