Exploring an Ice Castle

Around this time last year, I was WAY more adventurous that I feel like I am right now – or at least is seems that way to me. My husband had recently deployed, and somehow, knowing that I was a temporary single parent gave me a bit more energy to make sure the boys were still busy and doing fun things. So I asked one of my friends, whose husband was also deployed, if she wanted to drive with me to Dillion, CO (about 2ish hours away) to see this ice castle.

Honestly the whole trip would have been a huge success, except we chose to travel on the day that one of the worst snow storms that year was suppose to hit Colorado; and it did. I drove through it. I got stuck on the side of the road once, but a miraculous tow truck appeared within seconds. It took hours longer to get home, because when its a swirling snow and you’re driving on inches of icy snow and can’t see the road, you drive slow. We made it home, and I earned my Colorado street creds that night. That is also why I’m posting about this adventure a year late; it’s taken me that long to be okay with reliving those memories.

Aside from the intense trek home, the ice castle was awesome! The only pictures I took were taking with my iPhone because chasing three kids around a frozen palace isn’t really conducive to artfully capturing my surroundings, but hopefully what you DO see in these phots is that we really had fun. It is TOTALLY worth the drive, if you’re near one of their six location.

Figured I’d end on a little ‘real life’ photo…. which, despite this snap, Brecken actually loved the ice castle!

MY TIPS: 

• Buy your tickets ahead of time. Even though they don’t do refunds, they were gracious about letting us into the castle late (not at our ticket time) because of weather. It’s conditional and based off of how many people are currently in the castle, but our experience was a good one.
• Dress like you’re playing in the snow, because you are…. I wore jeans (mostly because at the time, I didn’t own any snow pants) but I would have been warmer if I had at least snow pants on. Snow boots are a must; the floor is crunchy, thick snow.
• If you can go as it’s getting dark, you’ll get to see the lights on the ice – which is pretty cool. It definatly gives off Frozen vibes.
• It’s not a place to eat or drink, so make sure everyone has had snacks (and use the potty) before you go enter the ice castle.