Westcliff and Bishop's Castle

 

It's one of our days off and we decided to take a short trip to visit one of the many historic small communities in this area.  We chose Westcliff which is in the Wet River Valley.  The Wet River Valley is nestled between the Wet River Mountains and the soaring peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (which are the snow-topped peaks you can see in some of our campground photographs).  Gary talked to one of the other Workampers here at Mountain View and he told Gary that the town of Westcliff practically empties out in the winter because the temperatures can get well below zero.  The low last winter was -17, but it's been reported to get even colder than that sometimes!  During our visit (thankfully) it was a beautiful day in the low 80s.

The drive to Westcliff had amazing, beautiful scenery.  We had gorgeous views of the Sangre de Cristos from the road.  Look how lush and verdant the area is from recent rains.  You definitely know it's springtime in the Rockies!

Westcliff is just one of many small communities in southern Colorado.  This is a picture of the main drag in town.

 Just off to the right at the end of the block above, the restaurant has this great fence skirting the outdoor patio.  We're talking western (yeehaw) towns here!

 The main street also has a few beautiful bronze sculptures scattered about.  Here's just two of them.  The first one is the cowboy reading with his boots off and we featured Sadie as part of that photo opportunity.

 The second bronze features both Sadie and me!  What you can't really see in this photo is the detail on this guy's shoes so I cropped the photo and focused on his shoes--wingtips.  Such a striking feature of the bronze sculpture.

At the far end of town, was this panoramic view of the Sangre de Cristos.  I (unfortunately) forgot my camera for this day trip, so all these were taken with my phone (thank you, God, for camera phones!).  But, the video I took panning the mountains is too large for me to send via email so I have to figure out another way to download it to my computer.  I've tried downloading photos once before with no success, but I'll give it a try again.

After lunch (we had an excellent lunch at a bar and grille), Gary had the MOST AMAZING chili either of us has ever had at a restaurant.  They used shredded beef and chipotle chilis.  Honestly, we have never tasted chili that good before.  Gary was very happy with his lunch.  I had a steak salad which was also fantastic.  They make their own salad dressings, use only fresh romaine for their salads, and basically make all their own stuff.  Yum! Yum!  From Westcliff we headed towards Bishop Castle.  We had been told we needed to go there, so we did.

The drive over was through the San Isabel National Forest.  There are lovely stands of Aspens scattered throughout the evergreen hillsides and roadsides.  We are definitely planning this trip again in the autumn when the leaves are changing color.  It should be outstandingly colorful and beautiful.

 We also passed Bigelow Divide (or gap) which is at the summit of Hwy. 165 at an elevation of 9,350.  Originally we thought it was a crossing of the Continental Divide, but I couldn't find anything on the Internet to verify that so it just seems to be a summit in the San Isabel National Forest off the highway.

 Located right to the left of these photos were some Aspen trees.  I love the bark on Aspens.  It is just so lovely and reminds me of the trees I have for our miniature New England Village (which all happens to be in storage!).

Now, your obligatory history lesson on Bishop Castle because you may not have ever heard of it!

For 40 years, Jim Bishop has been building a castle on a mountainside in central Colorado. "Did it all myself, don't want any help," he says mechanically as he unloads a pile of rocks that he's hoisted to the 70-foot level on one of the castle towers.

Every year since 1969, Bishop has single-handedly gathered and set over 1000 tons of rock to create this stone and iron fortress in the middle of nowhere. Bishop calls it "a monument to hardworking people" and "America's biggest, one-man, physical project." "I always wanted a castle. Every man wants a castle,” Bishop continues, his voice a broken record, answering the same questions he's obviously been asked thousands of times before.

It hasn't been easy. For most of those 40 years Bishop was engaged in a running battle with Washington bureaucrats over the rocks that he used, which came from the San Isabel National Forest that surrounds the castle property. Bishop felt that they were his for the taking, the government wanted to charge him per truckload.

Another bone of contention that stuck in Bishop's craw belonged to the Colorado state Chamber of Commerce, which refused to list Bishop Castle as an attraction in its official tourism guides.

Happily, those angry years are in the past. Both Uncle Sam and the Colorado Chamber now recognize that Bishop's dementia concretia is marketable, and that he's transformed some heavy, unwanted rocks into pure tourism gold.

Bishop's goal is to complete his castle before he dies. He has no thought of slowing down. Although the castle is mostly a hollow shell of cemented rocks and ornamental ironwork (Jim Bishop's regular line of business), his future plans include a moat and a drawbridge, a roller coaster mounted on the castle's outer wall, a balcony big enough to hold an orchestra, and a second castle for Phoebe, his wife. (By 2005, Jim had added a large metal mesh dome on top of the castle, which rotates when visitors run in it.)

"I want to live as long as I can and keep building that castle bigger and bigger and bigger."

Now that you know what it is, here are some photos.  Some I took off the Internet because it's hard to get good photos of the top of the castle when it is a sunny day--too much light and glare.

This photo I snagged from the Internet.

 And this one, too!  It shows all three towers really well.

 

 Now, on to my camera phone photos.  Can you see the dragon's head coming out of the peaked roof?  We were told that he used to have a propane tank so that every once in awhile the dragon would breathe out fire!

 Gary at the main entrance. 

 Stairs going straight up.  I looked at those and said, "Heck no!"  Even looking at it made my stomach turn a little.

 

 They have this large, rustic chair sitting out front.  Couldn't pass up that photo opp! It was a bit of a climb up with my short legs, but I finally conquered it.

 The clouds had this beautiful effect that I had to catch.

 And, on our drive back to Canon City (we basically made a loop) we passed this ramshackle residence that was picture perfect.  How pastoral is that?

 

 Psalms 57:10-11  //  For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; let Your glory be above all the earth.