Bishop's Castle, Colorado

One of our stops in Colorado was this huge castle built by ONE MAN. Yes, a single man has been building this by himself since 1969, block by block. His sons help with things like cutting stone and and such but the actual building is done by this one man; Jim Bishop. It happens to be just 6 miles from my cousins ranch in the Rocky Mountains and is located at over 9000 feet. Pretty amazing.

It's massive.

Kellie and I, along with Zach and Alex, came here about 7 years ago and it was cool to see how much it had progressed.

The main floor where they hold weddings at.

It's Big!

The boys thought it was pretty cool. It was a LOT disconcerting having them, especially Lukas, climbing through this castle as it is definitely not up to code on safety, and this coming from the mama who takes her 2 year olds rock climbing and let's them climb up high in trees and such. When Mr. Bishop gets done building for the day he just picks up his tools and heads down without so much as leaving any tape or barrier across the path that suddenly falls off into oblivion. Seriously, it's worse than it sounds. So the whole time Kellie, Alex and I were grabbing Luke's shirt collar so he wouldn't plummet off the side.

Spiral Staircases everywhere!

Kellie

As you can tell the staircases were super steep and pretty much all the railings were so wide apart that Lukas could easily fit through. Did I mention it was unsafe? Though the actual structure of the building is sound. I think.

The boys favorite part!

The GeoDome Tower

See how high I am? I'm in the tallest tower at 160 feet. And very short railings! Good thing I'm not afraid of heights, but I must confess: it is way scarier to be on a narrow ledge at 160 feet than it is to be at 1600 feet on the side of a cliff in Yosemite. It's amazing how much confidence I place in those climbing ropes!
Notice how there are only about 7 stone railings around the dome? You can still walk out there and around on that skinny balcony though! Hope a strong wind doesn't come by! Kellie went up into the very top of the dome, which feels somewhat wobbly, but I refrained as Alex and I had death grips on Nik and Luke.

Sitting very still so I could take a picture.
No glass in those openings!

Beautiful stained glass windows

The boys and I in the "Giant's Chair"

Cousins Alex and Lukas

Even though it is tall and scary if you have little children, it is definitely worth the visit if you are ever anywhere near Colorado Springs or Pueblo, Colorado.