Saranac Lake Ice Castle - Part 1

Our weather predictions for the day were not stellar, but I decided that my trip to Saranac Lake to see the Winter Carnival ice castle should go ahead anyway. I drove south through beautiful Adirondack forests for 50 miles:

The parking lot near the ice castle was full, so I found a spot on a side street by these cute Adirondack decorations in front of someone's home:

From there I walked to the ice castle:

I already knew the theme involved ice sculptures of dinosaurs, so I was not surprised to find them:

A Brontosaurus:

A Dimotrodon - or at least that's what I think it was:

And the ever popular Triceratops:

I walked toward the front entrance, where the Winter Carnival theme was spelled out in 3D snow sculpted letters, "Prehistoric Park:"

I could see people milling around inside, so I joined them:

And was immediately confronted by the biggest ice sculptures of all, two dinosaurs at right angles to each other. Some children were having lots of fun climbing on them:

I, however, had a lot of trouble making out what kind of dinosaurs they were, and where one ended and the other began. I could, though, make out the giant, sharp teeth of this one. Just like the children, I found those big teeth to be enough to make me happy:

I walked past this curious stairway, but it was busy so I exited a side doorway and walked around to the front of the castle again:

There were more steps in the front of the castle and they weren't busy, so I walked up them:

I reached the upper level, where I could see out over the parapet wall down to the roadway below, where busy workers were trying to keep traffic flowing and prevent illegal parking:

The upper level passageway, built of giant ice blocks as was all the castle, led around in a sort of maze. Now, this was a feature the former ice castles never had, so I was intrigued. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: