Ice Ice Baby...Midway Ice Castles

Utah has the greatest snow on earth (and we are getting lots this year).  And as such, we tend to be on the cold side of things for a few months.  This makes for a great environment for ice.  As Vanilla Ice use to sing "Ice Ice Baby."  You can do some really amazing things with ice.  You can eat ice, you can slip on ice (that's not so fun), you can cool down drinking ice and you can sculpture with ice.  Some guy (Brent Christensen to be exact) right here in Utah started creating massive ice castles for people to go see during the winter months after making an ice cave for his daughter.  I've been wanting to go see it for a couple of years now and it just hadn't worked out until this year.  My longtime friend Alice and I ventured out recently to explore this unique site.  Why we had to pick one of the colder nights I'm not sure (17F) but the stars were beautiful above the ice features. 

My friend Alice and I wandering the Ice Castle

 

After you save a few bucks by buying  your tickets online (http://icecastles.com/midway/) for a specific entry timeslot you can go enjoy the castle for as long as you like.  I'd suggest going mid-week as weekends tend to get really crazy.  Some week nights they have an ice princess which looks suspiciously like Elsa from Frozen which also draws lots of families. 

The castle appears pretty small when you first enter into the courtyard and you wonder if it was worth it.  But then you start walking around the walls and you see that not only are there lots of various tunnels (slot canyons) but there is also a walkway to a much larger inner courtyard with fountains and even a big ice slide!  There are tons of little nooks and crannies to explore.  It took us an hour, but again, it wasn't packed on the night we went and we would have stayed longer had it not been so cold.  Notice I say packed because even though it wasn't packed there were still significant crowds so don't expect to have a quiet serene time here.  That being said it is really neat to see the various ice formations up close and personal along with the different lighted areas which give fun hues to the ice.  Enjoy the pictures. 

Massive walls 10' thick and probably 20-30' high.

Really interesting ice formations

The lighting makes for some really cool colors

Looking straight up in one of the many tunnels

This slot canyon isn't as warm as my other adventure (http://trekkingtrego.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html) but it was just as narrow and fun!

 

Ice and blue light are crazy interesting right?

Various lighting displays on the castle walls.

 

You can look at other pictures from around Utah in the Photo Gallery By Location.  You can also view all my pictures in my Public Gallery.