In the last blog post I shared photos of a brief stop at a corner of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Then we were on the road to Trinidad. We had time for one more stop.

We turned south off of I-50 on Hwy. 69, east on Hwy. 96, and south on 165 to find Bishop Castle. We had never heard of Bishop Castle, but the campground host at Bryce Canyon suggested a stop here.

We parked along the road and walked past other cars on the road to this entrance. This is not part of the castle, but the entryway to the property.

This sign is at the right of the entryway. I guess this is enough to limit any liability claimed by visitors.

View of one portion of the castle. This project was started by Jim Bishop in 1969 and was a work in progress until he died in 2024. Wikipedia says: “James Roland “Jim” Bishop was born in Honolulu in 1944.^[6] He moved to Colorado with his wife, where they raised four children, including a son named Dan.^[6] Bishop bought the land for the site for $450 when he was 15, and construction on what was originally intended to be a family project to build a cottage^[7]started in 1969.^[8] After Bishop surrounded the cottage with rocks, several neighbors noted that the structure looked something like a castle. Bishop took this into consideration and soon began building his castle.“

View from another corner. It’s hard to get the whole thing in one shot. The tower is 160 feet tall.

The property is owned by the family and, despite the warning posted, they seem to welcome visitors. There is a gift shop on site as well as a food truck.

We did not take the winding stairs on the outside or the inside all the way to the top, but we stopped here.

I saw on Instagram that the dragon breathed fire on July 4th and on Halloween.

Interesting detail.

Near the castle are the workspaces where lumber is milled and metal worked.

There is also a small cement mixer.

This is the backside of the entrance in the first photo. Bishop Castle is an interesting place to visit. Dan came home with ideas!