Midway Ice Castles

Perhaps you remember THIS post?
Bernie and I were just driving through an area called Midway when we stumbled upon an amazing scene of which we had never imagined nor dreamed was possible.

We stopped by the "Ice Castle" area again during our anniversary weekend, when there really wasn't much to see.
Now...now there was something to see, and this time we got to see it all lit up at night.

The "castles" are created using plain water, PVC pipes, harvested icycles, and freezing temperatures.
And a bit of ingenuity of course.

I will just let you enjoy seeing the ice castles as photographed at night without much further comment
If you would prefer to see the pictures enlarged in a slide show format, click HERE.
Sometimes I used flash so you can see the ice details, other times I used only the lighting from the castles so you can enjoy seeing them as they looked in the dark.
The blue is the natural color of frozen water; anyone who has visited a glacier will recognize that unique shade of blue.

(Six foot three inch tall Bernie walking through one of the castle.  The castles will continue to "grow" right up through March; December was a bit on the warm side so they have not grown as fast as they did last year.)

Reminds me a bit of jelly fish floating through the water.

In the above picture you can see some of the PVC and structural design using the icicles to form the castles. The PVC delivers the water spray to encase the icicles and grow them.

The water spray also builds other interesting structures around the base.

How many pictures were taken just while we were there?
Everything from cell phone cameras to gigantic telephoto set-ups on tripods were being employed.

I really liked seeing the families strolling around together.
What a perfect family outing!

One of the naturally formed designs that would be incredible re-created by someone in glass.

Here's Brent, the maestro of ice.
I met him last year and had a nice chat with him.
Later I left a comment on his website, telling him I had blogged about my visit.

This is his wife Linda, and the youngest of their children.
I had not met her before, but when we first walked into the area, she was putting pictures of guests up on a wall.
I started to tell her how much I enjoyed seeing the castles last year and how I had posted pictures about my visit and so many people had loved seeing how beautiful the structures were.
She suddenly said "You are the hat lady!  Millinery, right?  Oh let me call Brent, he would love to see you again!"
How about that for hospitality?
We chatted together for quite awhile as people kept coming in to see the grounds.  Brent has patented his process and has trained a few people on how he creates his castles.  I could see how much both of them love doing this, and how excited they are about expanding the castles.

I hope we can get back up to Midway to see the castle "fully grown", and take some daylight pictures too. 
Oh, and there is to be a Valentine's dance there too...can you imagine?
The only thing better than that would be a wedding.
Wow. 
And double wow!

(if you didn't before, you might want to go back to the top of this post and visit the post from last year's castles. I am still amazed at how beautiful they were!)

Soldier Hollow on a Saturday afternoon

Another try at cross country skiing.

The slope was fast and steep just beyond this scene. I was scared but hung in there skiing along until I ran out of track.

At that point I fell with my right arm up, landing such that I tweaked my shoulder.

It took a bit to pull myself together; once I stopped shaking I unclipped my skis and walked back to the car, where I called Gail.

She gave me permission to NEVER get up on any form of skis ever again if I don't want to.

I. Don't. Want. To. Ski.  Ever. Again.

Bernie kept skiing...and about 40 minutes later he came back to the car to announce that he had fallen also and bruised his tail bone.

He intends to continue to ski, in fact, he had just bought himself the skis he was using this trip after renting and trying out several models before he made the decision about what brand he wanted.

I was hoping he would want to buy snowshoes instead of cross country skis...I love to snow shoe, but I guess I will be doing my outdoor activities and he will be doing his, and who ever is least hurt will be able take care of the other.

(I have a sneaking suspicion that I should acquire a nursing uniform. Jus' sayin' is all.)

After we turned in my skis and gear, we enjoyed a bowl of a wonderful Autumn Beer Pork Stew.  There is just something about eating a hot stew outside when there is snow on the ground that even the best restaurant can not duplicate.

Then I asked if we could just hike a bit.

(I had taken a Tylenol with codeine and was feeling pretty good at that point.)

This enormous hallowed tree was at the beginning of the trail.

We didn't hike far, and in fact were just wearing our hiking boots. 

The frozen Deer Creek reservoir (where this past summer we had enjoyed watching sail boats gliding by as we took an old fashioned train ride along the shore line) now has group of ice fishers.

I think Bernie had also taken a Tylenol, but it was painful for him to hike along.

But look at the beautiful views!  Easy to just stand and enjoy.

I've never been ice fishing myself, but I think I wouldn't mind just hanging out there on the lake with views like those to see.

I had chosen to only take my point and shoot camera, as I didn't want to ski with the larger camera.  Now I wished I had brought the other one along.

Later I really wished I had brought it along.

(I'll show you why on tomorrow's post!)

See the railroad tracks atop the curved knoll in the middle of the picture?

Now I want to take the Heber Creeper trail ride again in snow. 

The snowflakes on the ground were just huge!

We hadn't had snow in five days, yet the flakes were still separated from one another.

Crazy light stuff...just right for a good romp with a dog or a couple of kids, of which we had neither.

And since neither of us were really in any shape for tussling on the ground, we just enjoyed it for its own beauty instead.

From there we headed to see the spectacle that we had been waiting to see since last year at this time.

Come back tomorrow...oh it will be so worth it!

(PS: Bernie and I are both fine now...just a little bit sore, nothing serious. Wouldn't want anyone to worry.)