Ice Castles 2020/21

 Happy new year! 

Today I'm sharing our last adventure of 2020 with you. Our trip to the Ice Castles in Dillon.

If you've been here a while you'll know that the Ice Castles are always one of our highlights of the Winter. This was our third year visiting the Ice Castles, and even though we know what to expect each time, it's always a magical wonderland that leaves us awestruck. I mean, just take a look at those pictures below! Aren't the ice structures simply stunning? Don't they look like they're made of pure magic? Like little ice fairies waved their wands and the ice crystals formed together to create the most wondrous and otherworldly castle imaginable. I like to think that's how they're made! Actually, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how they're made. 

Ok, so maybe there's a little more science involved rather than fairy magic, but it's all still wonderful and like nothing else I've ever experienced. 

I just can't get enough of the Ice Castles - and that's why I took a gazillion photos to share with you!

As always, I really struggled to narrow down the photos. So go grab yourself a hot cocoa (perfect for this icy adventure) and prepare to enter a world of wonder...

Oh, and make sure to read through to the end as I've got a discount code for Little Hiccups readers!

Ice Castles

Happy new year! Can you believe that it's 2020 already? Doesn't that sound like some sort of distant future date? You know, when we'll all have flying cars, or something like that!

Well, we don't have flying cars but we do have plenty of pretty amazing things that go beyond imagination, and we spent the last day of the last decade checking one of them out. No, nothing computerized, electronic or robotic, but something that does require science to build - along with a healthy dose of imagination and creativity. I'm talking about Ice Castles! 

Not sure what Ice Castles are? Read on... you're in for a treat! 

Every year since 2011 the team behind Ice Castles have been making magical creations one ice crystal at a time. Well, more than one a time, more like 5,000 to 12,000 icicles harvested by hand and sculpted individually into formations. These icicles grow and grow taking shapes formed by the wind, water volume, temperature and a little human assistance until they become the 25 million pound structures the public gets to see and explore. Isn't that amazing? To make these structures even more magical, there are thousands of twinkling lights inserted into the ice that glow in a range of colors and sparkle to music when the sun goes down. 

There are six Ice Castles locations around the US and Canada including Midway (Utah), North Woodstock (New Hampshire),  New Brighton (Minnesota), Lake Geneva (Wisconsin), Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) and, luckily for us, Dillon, right here in Colorado. Just like snowflakes, no two Ice Castles are the same.   

We took a trip to Dillon on New Year's Eve to experience the Ice Castles for ourselves again (we also visited last year when we visited Colorado during Winter break - you can read about that here). It was just as magical as our previous visit. Last year we visited late in the day so that we could experience both the stunning blue and white colors of the ice as it sparkled in the sun and also the colorful lights when the sun went down. Our California bodies weren't accustomed to the cold and while we had a blast, we all left feeling rather chilly. This time around we decided to just visit during the day and I made sure to choose the warmest and sunniest day in the forecast. Our bodies have also become somewhat accustomed to Colorado Winters so we didn't leave with feet feeling like blocks of ice like last year!

Okay, enough of me blabbing on, you want to see pictures, right? Prepare yourself, because I took a ton - no surprises there! Here's a look at our visit to Ice Castles...