UPDATE: As of July 12, 2021 half of the staircase at Madame Sherri’s castle has collapsed and there are no plans to restore it or preserve the remaining steps. The below blog entry was written before these events and we hope you can all still enjoy hiking in the area and looking at the rest of the ruins. For more information on the collapse see here.

Having failed to go to the DMV I decided to try a different DMV…. really as an excuse to see Madame Sherri’s castle. Turns out there was a line at the DMV that could have reached Texas soooo I once again skipped out on my bureaucratic duties to go gallivanting…. all I can say is it was totally worth it!

Just like last time this was not an easy find but I learned the trick. There’s a TINY parking lot (maybe fitting 10 or 15 cars max?) attached to the entrance which is directly across the road from Egypt Road. So find Egypt Road and you’re good as gold.

Madame Sherri’s castle is a ruin out in the middle of the woods that looks like a castle. In actuality it was a mansion built in the 1930’s to host flamboyant parties for an eccentric actress named Madame Sherri. Locals will tell you with a spark f mischief in their eye that the castle may have been a bit more than a place to party… they claim it was a brothel. Now I don’t know too much about that but what I do know is it fell into disrepair and then burned down in the 1960’s. Now all that is left of it is a stunning rock staircase that goes nowhere and other bits and pieces of the walls and foundation. Even better there is a state forest surrounding it and lots of lovely trails to hike all around it. I took Annie’s Loop Trail today. It was… a moderate hike… Lots of hills, roots jutting out of the ground, some flooding, and lots of rocks that needed to be climbed over. With that being said I was passed by no less than four ladies in their golden years, a visibly pregnant woman, and a series of small dogs… so the trail couldn’t have been that bad! One of the women was sure to stop me and randomly tell me I was pretty. This made me smile. You meet the sweetest people on these trails sometime! This was just a reminder – if you can make someone’s day with such a small gesture, do it!

It was a great day, a real hike, lots of gorgeous mountain scenery including all sorts of creeks, gullies, wee damns, and tiny ponds. The ruins were spectacular and made for a wonderful photographic opportunity, and the people who were on the trail were all very happy and enthusiastic individuals. There wasn’t much to love about this place and I am sure I will be back! (Also the graffiti seemed to be oddly humorous throughout. I haven’t noticed this before…)

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Update: I went back to Madame Sherri’s castle to share it with my mother and a friend on 5/23/2017. Took a few more candid snaps.