A towering castle with beautiful gold etchings, regal details, and sky-blue accents, a miniature model of the floating house from Up sits alongside a train traveling through a mix of Victorian structures. All of it feels familiar — it’s Disneyland, for the most part, but nestled in the backyard of a modest suburban home in Anaheim Hills. Despite its humble location, fans flock to it, with free tickets for the rare open house often disappearing within minutes. Welcome to Castle Peak and Thunder Railroad, as David Sheegog calls his backyard, home to a miniature Disneyland Park that has been his passion for nearly a quarter of a century.
Dave Sheegog pitched the idea of creating a miniature model of Disneyland in his backyard to his wife as an educational tool for their kids. Over the decades, Castle Peak has garnered attention all over the country and grown alongside the Sheegog family. What was once meant to be a gift for his children has taken on a life of its own. The kids have since left home, but Castle Peak continues to flourish. Now, at 65, Sheegog, an independent architect, is working on a Star Wars-inspired entryway that he hopes will eventually lead to a new section of his backyard garden — one inspired by Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Sheegog’s version of the “happiest place on earth” is small but full of irresistible touches. The Casey Jr. Circus Train, for example, is equipped with its own sound module, playing the locomotive’s theme song as it chugs across a bridge. Another example is Sheegog’s “enchanted tiki waterbar,” where a glass window erupts into a thunder and lightning show, complete with a rainstorm created by a pump and reservoir. Having once worked at Disneyland on Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes and with the family’s eldest daughter named Ariel after The Little Mermaid, Disneyland was a natural theme for the family’s backyard garden…