The Ice Castles at Silverthorne, Colorado

Oh how I love Colorado! We went there twice last summer, once for my family reunion/cousin’s wedding and then later in August for a BBQ competition. But we haven’t been there winter for five years. Unlike previous years, there wasn’t that much snow. If Summit County always got that much snow, I could actually live in the mountains. But since Dillon got 4 inches of snow just the night after we left, it just won’t work, so we settle for visits… and visiting often.

I only took my camera out for ONE DAY! Astonishing, but we were snowboarding the other two days we were there. But this one day was worthy of photographing as we went to the Ice Castles at Silverthorne. These structures are best described on their website:

an unparalleled creation of walkways, illuminated ice formations, tunnels, and arches – all made entirely out of ice with no supporting substructure. These massive and dynamic ice structures will reach up 30 to 40 feet high, and collectively measure over 10,000 tons.

It really was beautiful and I am glad we got to go both during the day and at night to see the way they are lit. During the day, I could really appreciate the detail and the beauty of the ice while at night they were much more ominous and it was harder to see the detail so I looked more at the structures on a whole.

It was a great adventure with the family, walking among the hallways made of ice and looking up in a ceiling full of icicles. Have to admit, that was kind of scary. I kept imagining them plummeting down on top of us, but my camera was blocking my eyesight most the time I was looking up. Buuuuut, it was totally worth it as you shall now see! This is an extreeeemly photo heavy post, but I hope you enjoy it! The daylight and the artificial light at night was amazing. It played on the ice in such different ways, casting its shadows, and illuminating reflections of different parts….

Later as my dad was flipping through my camera, he asked if this was taken by mistake. I said, of course not, it’s to remember the ground that was covered in chunks of ice. Many people walked around with ski poles for balance.

And then night fell…

My dad taking this photo.

The following photo was taken by Chris Yonushewski, a writer for snow.com. He was there writing an article on the ice castles, which you can see here.

Wow, thank you for looking at all these! 🙂