Sunday- Bonus trip, Wow, Rocky Mountain High!!!!

We slept in to 9, the altitude must be getting to us....  We decided to add a day trip since we wanted to wait the weather out until tomorrow for our trip down to the volcano and Trinidad...

So, we put about 200 miles into a trip that involved heading up I-25 to Pueblo, then over to Canon City, Colorado, for a visit to the Royal Gorge Railroad depot, and a super visit to the Colorado Territorial Prison Museum, then a totally awesome visit to Royal Gorge and Bridge.  On the way back, we decided to take the "scenic" route, even though it was cloudy and misty, and still were rewarded with nice sights, a surprise find, some Mountain Sheep or Goats, and Bishop's Castle, which I had read about, but was not expecting to find, and then home back in Walsenburg by 6 pm. 

It was misty rainy as we headed out, but our hopes were high, since the forecast was for eventually sunny skies....  We turned off I-25 at Puebo, and headed up to Canon City.... 

First stop was the Depot of the Royal Gorge Railroad, which is a scenic route train that wasn't running today until tonight for a dinner cruise, but I got a nice set of pins and a gift for one of my coffee club pals...

We next headed over to the Colorado Territorial Prison Museum, which was a really neat experience.  It is actually housed in what is the old women's prison which was attached to the old maximum security prison, which dates from 1871, but is still in use today as a minimum level security prison.  

Each of the old cells was made into an exhibit space, and there were several other displays of prison crafts, weapons made in prison, etc etc. They gave you a headset, and the tour was 45 minutes or so, which Bette graciously agreed to let me do... 

Here is a photo of the old warden's house, located right next to the prison:

It turns out that Canon City is quite the prison capital of Colorado, there are 8 major facilities located within a few minutes of town... Some of them are max security, some are "regular" prisons, some are for women, and so forth.  The prison business is a major employer in the area, for sure. 

Then, we headed over to one of the most beautiful and unusual sites we have visited on the trip, the Royal Gorge Bridge.  This was built in 1929, and has been recently reinforced.  For one entrance fee, you can ride an airway tram, an incline all the way to the bottom of the gorge, walk the bridge, or take a trolly ride around the property, which has a petting zoo, a small zoo, and food and shops.

Although it was cloudy, misty, and cold (42 degrees), we had a blast, and hung out for about two hours or so.  This picture is not from me, but from the web, and is of course taken on a good day....

Here's what the view is from the bridge itself, it's about a 1500 foot drop..  vertigo!!!!!

We had a terrific lunch at Big Daddy's diner, a 50's place in downtown, Bette had a big burger, which she halved for dinner tonight, and I had open faced turkey. 

Just down the road, we stumbled upon the Super Max of all Federal Prisons, in Florence, Colorado.  This facility was built after riots at other prisons convinced the Feds they needed a new "Alcatraz"- and the nickname of this place is the Alcatraz of the Rockies...

There is a who's who of criminal minds locked up here:
Ted Kaczynski, the Unibomber Zacharious Moussaoui and Ramsey Yousef, and Richard Reid of terrorism acts, Terry Nichols of the OKC bombings, and some nasty folks from supremists groups, organized crime, and other incorrigables... 

Here's the Wiki page to check it out at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence

We decided to take the "scenic" route back, even though it was cloudy and misty, and we had about 30% luck, but it was a nice drive... We did break through the cloud tops at about 9000 feet, and had a few miles of blue skies... 

I did my best Rocky Mountain Sheep wispering trick, and Bette was able to catch this herd as it munched grass in the mist on the side of the road along the way:

Then, we stumbled on what is known as Bishop's Castle, which is a monument by a fellow to a dream.  He's been building it by himself for the last 40 years, and has fought Federal and local governments along the way, and the place has lots of signs indicating his views... Its free, (donations accepted), and is nowhere near complete, but a work in progress.   No one was there today, and we were one of several visitors....  Would have liked to have met the guy and had a conversation with him.   Two shots, one on a clear day from the web, and what it looked like today in the mist and mud:

And how it actually looked like today, took on a really scary motif:

One of the real road oddity finds ever for us!  Kudos to you Mr Bishop!

We twisted and turned back down the mountains, and got backed to Lathrop Park at about 6-  Bette got a little bushed today, the altitude works on her a bit. 

Tomorrow, sleep in probably, then down to New Mexico to Capulin Volcano NM, and the town of Trinidad, Colorado, then home to pack up and get ready to hit the road Tuesday morning to Monument/Colorado Springs for a week of sightseeing and rest.