Rainbow-lit ice castles bloom
On a clear, frigid night in a courtyard made of walls of ice, Bruce Mccafferty and his young son stand mesmerized, bathed in the pulsating rainbow light emanating from a series of stout ice formations.
Mccafferty and his son Dougie have come out to Ice Castles in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, a collection of ice tunnels, caverns and a 97-foot ice slide that cover an acre of farmland that some said look like something out of the movie “Frozen.”
The winter wonderland, one of six in North America, is built when the cold allows ice to sprout from the barren ground.
Other parks are located in Lake Geneva, Wis.; Excelsior, Minn.; Dillon, Colo.; Midway, Utah; and Edmonton, Alberta. This year, the attractions will stand until early March at most sites .
At the center of the New Hampshire attraction stand six ice structures that are nearly four feet tall and are lit from within by colored lights.
“It’s quite magical, isn’t it?” Mccafferty said. “I’d really like to know how they actually built it.”
The attraction starts small in December, when the site’s lead builder Matt Pasciuto and his team set up icicle farms: metal racks that are sprayed with water to allow icicles to grow on them overnight. The icicles are then harvested by “ice artists,” who place them around more than 70 sprinklers.
Within a few weeks, the icicles cover the entire park. Some reach heights of 20 feet.
On a recent sunny day, the massive ice walls shined with a glacial blue hue. After the sun went down, the castles burst with colors thanks to LED lights embedded in the ice. The astonishing visuals are complemented by a synchronized fantasy soundtrack playing throughout the venue.
The attraction, which moved this year from nearby Lincoln, draws tens of thousands of visitors.