Local ice attraction opening for its third year in a row this weekend
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IDAHO FALLS — The Youngstrom family is ready to unveil its ice palace to the community and give locals a chance to stroll through a winter wonderland.
The Labelle Lake Ice Palace in Rigby opens for its third year in a row Saturday night.
“We want to provide fun family activities for eastern Idaho in the wintertime,” Director Kira Martin tells EastIdahoNews.com. “There’s not a lot to do in the winter here.”
RELATED | Experience the magic of the Ice Palace at Labelle Lake
Some special guests will be in attendance for its opening weekend, including Santa Claus and the Ice Princess. Live performers will put on a show with fire.
But that’s not all visitors can expect this year.
“It will be getting bigger throughout the season,” Martin says.
They are hoping to have stairs up to a second story of the palace later in the season. On top of that, they are attempting to make the world’s longest man-made ice tunnel that would be a little over 300 feet long.
“The longest one we could find was in Finland, and it was like 200 something feet,” Labelle Lake Designer Jim Youngstrom says. “That’s a pretty cool thing…That’ll give people something fun to walk through.”
Horse-drawn sleigh rides will be available every night. With the purchase of a sleigh ride there is free hot chocolate and sledding. Tubes and sleds are provided.
The passages are lit up and music will be played throughout.
“It’s extremely magical,” Martin said. “When you go and you see it all, you have this happy feeling of ‘Wow, winter is so beautiful.'”
The ice palace is on a one acre plot near Krupp Scout Hollow through the woods at 678 North 4212 East. Its hours of operation are 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with 10 p.m. closing time Friday and Saturday.
Anybody who comes during the month of December will receive a $5 bounce back pass. Groups with more than five people will receive a 10% discount. Tickets can be purchased online or at the ice palace and a waiver needs to be completed.
More information is available on the Labelle Lake Ice Palace website or Facebook page.
