We love a good road trip, especially if it involves stopping at unusual roadside attractions, such as Bishop’s Castle (above) in central Colorado. This one-of-a-kind medieval/fantasy castle was built by one man, Jim Bishop, over a span of forty years.
Way to Find Offbeat Places on Road Trips #1- Roadside America
We first learned of Bishop’s Castle from a book we purchased a few years ago called Roadside America. This helpful guide to offbeat and weird places to visit has been our go-to source for oddities when exploring a new area.
There’s a more recent edition – New Roadside America, as well as a smartphone app which will help you find weird places to visit on vacation all across North America. The Roadside America app (below) is available for both Android and Apple phones.
The Joy of Finding Unusual Places Like Bishop’s Castle
Bishop’s Castle ix nestled in the Wet Mountains, southwest of Pueblo, Colorado, on State Highway 165. The castle’s eccentric, opinionated and often abrasive creator has since passed on, and the castle is now open to the public, courtesy of volunteers who still keep up the grounds. A small donation is requested, but not required, to visit this one of a kind castle. Parents with small children will want to watch them carefully, as much of the welded aerial towers that visitors can climb up are not especially “child safe”.
If not for seeing it on the Roadside America app and deciding to seek it out, we might not have traveled this route through Colorado’s Wet Mountains, a drive that was as enjoyable as seeing Bishops Castle itself.
Way to Find Weird Roadside Attractions #2 – Simply by Accident
Perhaps the most enjoyable way to find offbeat roadside attractions in America is simply by taking side roads and keeping an eye out for curiosities. We “stumbled” across the VLA or Very Large Array by accident. This vast assortment of radio telescopes is mounted on railroad tracks and spans hundreds of acres of desert in New Mexico. This unique, deep space research site was featured in the movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster.
If we ever do hear from aliens, chances are, this is where it will happen. A visitor’s center is open to the public, where you can learn more about SETI and radio astronomy. Here you can find a (very long) video of Driving to the Very Large Array that we posted on our YouTube channel.
Not far from the VLA is Pie Town, New Mexico – another worthwhile stop – that features two competing restaurants offering mouth-watering homemade pies.
Had we not taken a wrong turn just past Elephant Butte Reservoir, at Cuchillo, NM, and ended up on a long, rough dirt road, we’d never have visited the VLA. A similar unplanned detour led us to the source of all of Popeye’s spinach, (left) in Crystal City, Texas, and this unique watermelon shaped water tower, in Luling, TX.
Way To Find Offbeat Roadside Attractions #3 – Atlas Obscura
On another trip we used an app from Atlas Obscura to locate an unusual memorial in the middle of the New Mexico Desert – dedicated to “The Flying Paperboy”. Frank Kindel was a local man who regularly delivered newspapers by dropping them from his small Piper aircraft to remote ranches in the region, until finally crashing his plane when in his late 70’s. Sometimes the best thing about finding these offbeat places is often the story itself.
The Atlas obscura app is available for both Apple and Andriod and contains more than 24,000 interesting and offbeat attractions around the globe and is currently free to use.
In Utah, we found the delightful Monster Mountain Museum, (thanks to the Roadside America app) which consists of several acres of whimsical art and statues. Here you’ll find all kinds of weird artistic creations made from discarded mining equipment, cars and other junk items that the artist has gathered from the surrounding desert over many years.
Located at the junction of state routes 95 and 24 in Hanksville, Utah, this weird roadside attraction is well worth a visit if you appreciate quirky metal art. A small donation is requested to enter the grounds.
- Mike Wilkins (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 288 Pages - 06/01/1992 (Publication Date) - Fireside (Publisher)
Nearby – The Mars Desert Research Station
About 7 miles from Hanksville, Utah, you’ll find the Mars Desert Research Station. While not open to the public, the project’s website states that: “people are allowed to pass the campus from Cow Dung Road, and are welcome to stop and park where allowed, and view the station from that spot”. This unique research facility was chosen for having terrain very similar to that of Mars.
From the public road you just might catch a glimpse of some future astronauts, wearing shiny spacesuits and practicing maneuvers in a Mars buggy across the desert landscape.
Several Unusual Roadside Attractions in One Place – Casey, IL
One of the biggest collections of unusual roadside attractions can be found scattered around the downtown area of Casey, IL. This cute little community, whose motto is “Big Things in a Small Town” is located just off IH-70. There you’ll find twelve of the Guinness Book of World Records’ largest things, including a giant rocking chair, mailbox and a towering barber pole. All items are in “working condition” and you can even mail a letter by climbing up into the giant mailbox, which also affords a nice view of downtown.
Other Ways to Find Weird Roadside Attractions
Besides Roadside America’s printed guide and app, you might try the Roadtrippers app, a highly-rated trip planner which helps you coordinate the perfect road trip, with suggestions that include off the beaten path attractions to check out along the way. Another option is the Roadside Attractions app, by TripBucket.
(We didn’t find this one as useful as Roadside America or Roadtrippers, however.) The same developer also offers a Route 66 Guide app, which comes in handy if you’re planning to “get your kicks”.
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Related Post: Overlanding in New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains
