justinmud: Day 6 July 21, 2011

Our fist stop of the day was Bishop Castle. It started as a family construction project situated in the San Isabel National Forest. The castle is named after its constructor, Jim Bishop. Construction of the castle began in 1969 when Bishop began construction on a family cottage, which he decided to surround with rocks. Several neighbors noted that the structure looked something like a castle. Bishop took this into consideration and soon began building his castle. He bought the land when he was fifteen for a price of $1,250. There are no rules at the castle you may climb anywhere at your own risk. While we were there it started to storm, it was lightning, thundering and even hailing so we did not go up to the top of the towers. We have visited the castle numerous times over the years. Mr. Bishop is still constructing the castle so there are new things every time we go.

inside the castle

Matthew in the big chair!

the hail at the castle

hail on the side of the road

on the steps of the castle

more hail...

After driving for a while we stopped by the Colorado Territorial Prison while is now in use as a State Prison. The prison is built against the mountain to make it extremely hard to escape.

This is a gas Chamber that was actually used.

This is me in one of the old jail cells, this cell was originally in use inside the prison.

The prison walls

A fire truck at the prison

The we went to Royal Gorge Bridge which was originally constructed as a tourist attraction. Measuring from deck to the river below, the Royal Gorge Bridge held the record of highest bridge in the world from 1929 to 2003. It is now the highest bridge in North America. The bridge is now part of an amusement park so we did not go it and walk across but we did get to see it. It is super HIGH!