Winter has definitely returned to Colorado with a vengeance this week! We had our coldest night of the entire winter season the other night with the mercury dropping to -4 overnight. Which really isn’t too bad considering two years ago the temp dropped to -24 in Woodland Park and -37 in Divide just a few miles north of here!
But if we were going to have a cold week, this was the one to have it, the week of the annual Ice Festival celebration in Cripple Creek. Unfortunately I was working during the best part of the festival, but at least I got to see it. I was tempted to take the camera down and get some shots, but after fighting the crowds last year I decided against it. Not a fan of random crowd shots anyway.
However one benefit of the cold weather is that the ice sculptures have not yet melted. Today on my walk to work before first light I discovered that the street is still blocked off and the lights are still illuminating the sculptures. I didn’t have my good camera so these with my phone camera are not the best, but it was kind of magical to be there when there were no other people around 🙂 So I just walked up the street and snapped some shots as best as I could in the dark with my extremely unimpressive phone camera.
These two were my favorites, my favorite one being the castle. Oh, the town keeps the holiday lights up until after the ice festival, so I got a two-fer for my efforts. Hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe you can make it down to Cripple Creek next year!
These shots are not of sufficient quality to put on my website, but please be sure to visit if you want to see more Cripple Creek, mountains, wildlife, sports and and nature photographic art!
