Come Play in Giant Ice Castles!

A company based in Utah makes these Ice Castles out of more than 10,000 icicles and weighing over 25 million pounds.

Ice Castles

We’ve done stories about art made of ice and snow before, but nothing quite like this.

A Utah-based company, Ice Castles, builds epic castles out of ice!

Each of their structures is man-made by a team of builders, take up acres of space, and weigh up to 25 million pounds.

The company was started by Brent Christensen in 2010. He and his family moved from California to Utah, and his kids wanted to play in the snow. Instead of simply letting them throw snowballs at each other and build snowmen, Brent went to work building them an ice rink in the family’s backyard.

But even a basic ice rink was too easy for Brent. Instead, he included a 20-foot tall castle-like structure with a slide and an ice cave. The kids affectionately called it the Ice Castle, and Brent realized he was on to something.

Getting a team together, Brent decided to make full-scale Ice Castles to serve as performance spaces and general entertainment in any place that could support them.

Because it’s an outdoor venue, the castles are dependent on the weather. Once Mother Nature decides to cooperate, Brent and his team get to work. It can take a team of 20 working 14-hour days spraying up to 5 million gallons of water in temperatures as low as two degrees to get the process started. After three weeks in those conditions, the castle will be ready for the public.

The finished structures feature mazes, slides, crawl tubes, and slot canyons. Color-changing LED lights illuminate the way at night, allowing the park to be open well into the evening.

The result is a breathtaking display of the partnership between human engineering and mother nature.

Last year, there were Ice Castles in Midway, UT, Eden Prairie, MN, Lincoln, NH, and even north of the border in Edmonton, Alberta.

For more information on how the icicles are farmed and the castles are made, click here. And if you want to plan a winter vacation to an Ice Castles this year, keep an eye on their website and their Facebook page for information on upcoming locations.

In the meantime, check out these images of these amazing creations.