The Cripple Creek 2026 Ice Festival

The Ice Festival is an annual event in Cripple Creek, Colorado, where ice carvers sculpt spectacular figures from huge blocks of solid ice, competing for a $1,000.00 prize. The main thoroughfare, Bennett Street is closed off to vehicle traffic, leaving it open only to the foot traffic of visitors as the carvers sculpt their masterpieces. The sculptures are amazing, and viewing them at night, when they are all lit up with different colors creates an amazing walk through a fantasy world.

Each year has a different theme. I don’t make it to visit the Ice Festival every year, but I have made it a few times. I first visited the Ice Festival in 2015, when the theme was Story Time, but I was unprepared with no camera to photograph the amazing fantasy figures carved by these talented artists. I loved the Old West theme from 2016, (view them here), and in 2023, the theme was the Carver’s Choice, (view them here).

For the last three years, Cripple Creek has had an added winter feature to compliment the Ice Festival which is celebrated every February. Opening sometime each January, depending on the weather, Cripple Creek hosts the added attraction of a magnificent Ice Palace, with tunnels and slides and even a fire feature. 2026 hasn’t had a lot of snowfall, so the Ice Castle above may seem out of place. Tickets are a bit pricey and must be purchased ahead of time, for a specific time, and my trips to Cripple Creek are pretty spur of the moment, so I’ve never actually visited the Ice Castle, but have contented myself with photos from afar, which look like a huge snow blob from the outside. I will say, although difficult to photograph because of the glaring street lights, it does look pretty cool at night. But the real action lies within. Maybe someday.

The 2026 Ice Festival

This year’s theme was artist choice, I believe, so the subject of each sculpture varied. They had sculptures at both ends of Bennett Ave, with vendors of every kind in between on the main thoroughfare. At the far end, in front of the Double Eagle Casino, they had the traditional ice slide, but this old gal wasn’t doing it this year.

That end of the street didn’t have as many as the lower end, but some of them were pretty darned cool.

The signs you see tell the sponsoring business and you can scan them with your phone to vote for the sculpture you feel is best. Me, I just liked them all.

Down on the lower end of Bennett Avenue in front of the Triple Crown Casinos is where the majority of the sculptures were found. This is a competition and the artists compete for a cash purse prize.

Starting out with gigantic blocks of ice, these talented artists sculpt their amazing works with hand tools and chainsaws. Below is a photo of one master ice wizard adding finishing touches to his Sphynx face to finish up the Egyptian display. I visited on the last day of the competition, and he was about the only one still working his magic, creating icy desert images.

About Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.

Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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This post is sponsored by the Time Travel Adventure Series and WordCrafter Press, spotlighting the upcoming release of The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions.

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