October 19-20, 2025 Lake Pueblo State Park to Lathrup State Park, Colorado

 83, sunny and windy.

Hiking with John  on some of the park trails.

Sunset.

We fueled up at $3.06 a gallon. Farther down the road we saw the price of fuel as high as $3.71. Beautiful historic downtown Walsenburg. 

Lathrup State Park. 

Lathrup state park. With the Spanish Peaks. 

I finished my first basket of the trip today. The center is a piece of glass I fused. It is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and a gem stone bear. It is 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 3 inches.

The bus at Lathrup St Park. Nice campground with a lot of pinon pine trees. Sunset. 

October 18, 2025 Pueblo, Colorado

 High of 73, sunny and very windy.

Driving west of Pueblo into the  Wet Mountains. There are still some trees with some golden leaves on the, but most have dropped them.

We went to Bishop Castle. Wikipedia says Bishop Castle is an "elaborate and intricate", "one man project" named for it's constructor the late Jim Bishop that has become a roadside attraction in Colorado. You enter Bishop Castle at your own risk. It is risky, but very amazing. It took Jim 60 years to build this monumental statue of stone and iron. 

Inside looking toward the front.  Inside looking toward the back with stained glass. 

Close up of the stained glass. There was more stained glass also. Some details on the outside.

John heading up a spiral staircase. Some of the walkways between the towers. We did not go up the towers or on those walkways. The higher you got the more rickety it all felt. But plenty of other people went up.

Looking down a couple of the spiral staircases. They are pretty scary. The steps are small and different sizes and some in poor repair, The railings are low, sometimes rickety, or not there at all. The back of the castle. 

Some of the walkways outside. There are some holes in them, and they move a little. The scary part is that you are up real high and you can see through the walkways to the ground. But they are cool to see.  On the way back we stopped in Beulah, Colorado, population 643. Very cute artsy town 25 miles east of Pueblo. 

We went to  Reservoir Brewing to taste their beer, but they are in the process of moving to another site, so they had none of their own beer. John had a guest IPA and I had a wonderful peanut butter stout. We had really good pork street tacos for dinner. Nice ridge off one of the trails at the campground. 

Looking down on Lake Pueblo at dusk. A few deer on the trail. 

October 16-17 , 2025 Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado

 77 and sunny.

There were a ton of butterflies on this one rabbit bush.  The marina store is out of minnows and leeches, and leeches are only $8, Darn we missed the Chili and Frijoles festival. Palm trees on the back of a house boat in the marina. John on his way out the dock to the marina. 

There was 15 mph wind and I did not want to boat into it and over the waves. The water is clear. 

Looking toward the boat ramp. Sun almost down in the campground. 

Almost down. Some color in the sunset over the lake. 

We went to the Steelworks Center of the west. The museum is in the old medical clinic. John in steel works park outside the museum. The old iron works are across I-25 from the rest of the buildings. This plant was built in 1883 to make rails for the railroads that were built in the west. It is the biggest steel plant west of the Mississippi. The newer in use plant is now south of this site. 

John in the 180 ton ladle from the old steel plant. The historic office complex. Really interesting museum.

We walked along the riverwalk in downtown Pueblo. a nice mile section of the Arkansas river with walkways, are and shops along the river. 

At one end of the river walk is Lake Elizabeth. Sculpture on the river walk. The walk was closed at this point due to construction. 

Zebulon Pike exhibit. He camped in this area when he was exploring the Arkansas river. 

We stopped at the Brues Alehouse brewery along the river walk, tasted their beer did not like it and moved to the Shamrock Brewing Company. John with his IPA at the Shamrock.  A sign in the Shamrock brewery 'No shoes no kilt, no service', The had chocolate porter ice cream floats. Yum. Art on the river walk. 

We got the last spot big enough for us in the campground for over the weekend. It is a double campsite. No one was there for the last two night. Today this monstrous 5th wheel pulled in behind up in the other spot. Their truck is right up to our picnic shelter. Sunset over the campground. 

Dinner outside again tonight. Sunset with our neighbors campfire and an outdoor spot light from the next camp site.