Colorado loses one Ice Castles exhibit for 2026-27 season

Winter in Colorado will be a little less sparkly this year. Ice Castles won’t return to Cripple Creek for the 2026-27 season. The city and the company announced Oct. 2 that “operational and business considerations” led to the decision. Translation: last winter was too warm for a castle made of icicles.

The castles had been a winter favorite in the old mining town since 2023. Every year, “ice engineers” spent late October and November building towering frozen walls, tunnels and slides out of thousands of hand-placed icicles, and the castles usually opened between late December and March. “We have loved our working relationship with the city and with the community,” Ice Castles CEO Kyle Standifird said. Cripple Creek says it hopes to bring the castles back when the weather cooperates. The town is still holding its Ice Festival this winter, so it isn’t giving up on the cold.

Now for the question Front Range families are asking: could the castles end up closer to Denver? Don’t plan on seeing one at Washington Park. Cripple Creek is at roughly 9,500 feet and still got too warm, so a castle at 5,280 feet would probably melt by lunchtime. Silverthorne is a better bet. It hosted Ice Castles last winter in Red Village at The Outlets at Silverthorne, right off I-70 and about an hour and a half from downtown Denver. That means you could take the kids, shop for discounted sneakers and slide down a block of ice in one trip.

Ice Castles hasn’t said whether Silverthorne is back this year. Its website just says a locations announcement is “coming soon.” Forecasters at OpenSnow say El Niño is raising the odds of a snowy winter, which could help. Keep your mittens handy.