Enchanting Ice Castles: Winter Magic in Woodstock, NH

PHOTO: The moment you arrive at the entrance of the Ice Castles you will be amazed and be enchanted at the sight of the colorful massive ice structures. The Ice Castles’ mission is to create happiness, laughter and unforgettable winter memories. The experience is built entirely by hand using hundreds of thousands of icicles hand-placed by professional ice artists. The LED lights frozen inside the ice light up and are dazzling and thrilling for kids and adults of all ages. For more information and tickets visit IceCastles.com.

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

Mother Nature’s winter chill has once again made magic with the annual rise of the Ice Castles in North Woodstock. More than 10,000 tons of ice is used to construct an ice castle. The ice is grown, shaped and lit with LED lights to provide a fairytale experience for children and adults of all ages.
The enchanting winter attraction opened this season in mid-January and is open every day until sometime in March when the freezing air sneaks away. Be sure to purchase your tickets well in advance – often nights and the weekends sell-out.
Ticket sales are limited and everyone must wear a face covering and maintain 6-foot social distancing. There is one-way foot traffic flow through areas of the castles, staff sanitize high touch services and best of all there is plenty of fresh cold mountain air surrounding all the features and guests.
Last Wednesday night Charlie and I visited the Ice Castles and we had a wonderful time from the moment we arrived and until the moment we left.
As we turned off Route 112/Lost River Road onto Clark Farm Road we noticed that there were plenty of signs and directions from the numerous parking lot attendants that pointed their glowing orange wands to lead us to our parking space. The first attendant we reached asked us if we had tickets and our reservation time. Satisfied with our answers we were permitted to drive ahead. Our reservation to enter was the 7:30 to 8 pm block.

I asked a couple holding hands with their obviously tired 5 or 6 year old what time they had arrived and their answer was a quarter of six and the dad added with a smirk, “He really loved the ice slides.” They had spent a good two hours inside the Ice Castle outdoors–that’s a lot of winter fun. Wearing warm winter clothing from head to toe is necessary.
At the entrance we waited in line maybe ten minutes before we reached the window where they scanned the code on my phone’s screen and we made our X’s on the release form.
The Ice Castle’s entrance is impressive. The massive high ice walls were lit from inside and glowed and changed colors and made us eager to pass through the archway to get inside to see more wonders. Inside the Castles’ walls we wandered about following pathways deeper inside and down ice hallways that opened up to balconies and courtyards. The floors were covered in crushed ice. Everywhere lights danced and glowed. There was even an immense ice throne with a cushion where all the royal guests could sit together for a family photo or a selfie.

Ice and more ice, high pointed spires of ice, frozen ice bubbles, large rooms of ice and more ice make it a Castle. Ice slides, chutes, tunnels and dazzling magical lights of all colors surrounded us and music and laughter filled the air along with plenty of “Oohs and Aahs.” Encircling the Castles’ main ice structures are more things to see and do. We entered the Ice Castles’ Mystic Forest Light Walk Trail. The Trail is a quarter mile long sanded path through the forest where the trees and forest floor are magically transformed by ever changing twinkling lights and surprising shapes. Oh my goodness we loved it! The lights and delightful trees made me feel joy and I allowed my imagination to run wild believing nature had gone wild. There is also a tubing hill and since there was nearly no line we decided we should go for a ride down the icy hill. The beautiful view from the small hill over to the gigantic Ice Castles’ glowing ice walls and across into the lighted forest was an added bonus. The fast ride down the chute on the slope was fun.

Near the tubing hill people were getting ready for a horse-drawn sleigh ride. Sleigh rides can be booked on-line at the same time as you make your reservations or if available purchased on-site. The 15-minute ride travels through the woods past more lights and surprises.
Before we headed home we decided to walk through the Mystic Forest again. The trail dazzled and enchanted us once more and was it a fine encore for the evening.
Have Fun.