Discovering Utah: Ice Castles

I love to discover all the fun places Utah has to offer! We had an amazing opportunity to visit the Ice Castles in Midway, Utah. This year it is being built at the Soldier Hollow Resort located at 2002 Soldier Hollow Road, Midway, Utah, 84049. My Little Chefs were super excited when I told them we were going to visit. Little Chef H wasn’t so sure what I was talking about so I pulled up the Ice Castles website and showed her what we would be seeing. That is when she couldn’t stop askig if it was time to go yet!

This year tickets are being sold mainly online. When we arrived they had a line for ticket holders and a line for people wanting to purchase tickets. While we were waiting to get in we only saw 2 people in the wanting to purchase tickets line. An employee did tell me that the ticket holder line had priority over the line to buy tickets. You can purchase tickets to the Ice Castles here.

This is the sixth year creater/architect Brent Christensen has been making these Ice Castles, which began in his backyard. If you live close by Lincoln, New Hampshire; Stratton, Vermont; or Eden Prairie, Minnesota you are lucky enough to have an Ice Castle being built by you as well!

The most common question my kids ask is how is this made? The short answer is a lot of water and a lot of work. It takes about 5 million gallons of water to create one Ice Castle. All of the Ice Castles are located next to a natural water source so all of the water returns directly into the environment to be used again by wildlife, people and plants.

There is a Ice Farm where they grow 5,000-12,000 icicles. These are then harvested by hand and sculped into the existing ice formations. They drench it with water and because of the temperatures, how much water they dumped, wind and where/how the icicle was sculped a new ice formation is formed. They have 10-20 artists who work day and night to create this magic.

My kids loved seeing the sculptures change colors with the lights that are frozen into the ice. We went through the Slot Canyon, through caverns, down 3 slides and they wanted to play in a pool of water. Of course I had fun doing all those same things! We did see Olaf! Princesses Ana and Elsa were there to take pictures with as well. My kids had a great time discovering one new area after another. You never know where a pathway is going to lead. 

Some things I learned:

• Dress warmly, you are outside and surrounded by ice.
• Wear shoes with traction. Some parts are slippery. This is to be expected because it is ice.
• If you can help it be a baby wearer not a baby pusher. Strollers are extremely hard to take in. There are narrow pathways strollers will not be able to get through.
• Bring a camera. This is a beautiful place to take pictures. In fact so beautiful many couples have taken their bridal pictures here! Follow on Ice Castles on Instagram.
• Buy your tickets online. Check the website to verify when they are open. If you are in Utah tonight may be the last night for the season if the weather continues to be warm.
• Have fun and look at the details! It is so amazing to see what beautiful sculptures water can make! You can spend as much or as little time as you like inside.