Inside the Ice Castle in Breckenridge, Colo. (Lon Lovett/Ice Castles)

Ever fantasized about walking in a real-life winter wonderland? Ice Castles, a Utah-based company, has made it a reality for its visitors.

Brent Christensen started Ice Castles after he moved his family from California to Utah. He wanted to create something for his children in their new cold-weather environment, so he started with an ice rink.

The ice rink, however, wasn’t just a regular skating rink — it included a 20-foot slide, an ice cave and a castle, which prompted his children to call it the “Ice Castle.”

Christensen first built the structure out of wood, then covered it with water, but once the weather got warmer the castle melted and he was left with the wooden remains. He decided to figure out a better way to make the castle by just using ice.

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“Ice just works a lot better,” Christensen said in a statement on the Ice Castles’ site. He started using icicles as the base scaffolding and then sprays water to create ice towers, tunnels and archways. A method he later patented.

Now, Ice Castles are located in Colorado, Utah and New Hampshire. The castles are created by “growing” more than 5,000 icicles, which are then sculpted to create the beautiful structures seen in the slideshow above.

It is not just the sculptors responsible for the way the castles turn out; Mother Nature also plays an important a role. “The blend of icicle placement, changing temperatures, water volume and wind result in an astonishing variety of ice formations,” according to the site.

To find out more about Ice Castles visit their website. This season Ice Castles can be seen in Breckenridge, Colo., Midway, Utah and Lincoln, N.H.