Blue Lakes near Ridgway, Colorado never cease to amaze me.

I’ve made this hike yearly - both with and without couples - since I first visited in 2020. The pristine teal waters that grace the lower lake are always so beautiful, and the hike its self is what I would consider very moderate. Take that with a grain of salt - it certainly depends on your hiking abilities and acclimation to altitude. But if you’re an avid hiker or someone who’s typically out hiking summits (guilty, as charged), I think you’ll find this little ditty to be a super pleasant hike.

In the dead of night, I bumped into Bethany and Brandon on all of our ascent up to the 3rd lake for our pre-sunrise meet up. Over the past few years, most of my hiking elopements I suggest we meet at our final destination as long as everyone is comfortable hiking without me essentially guiding us in the dark. This allows everyone to hike at their own pace, as well as push our photography-start time to when we meet up top instead of at the trailhead. Just below the first lake, we all happened to be on the trail at the same time and ended up making the trek together.

Up top, as we awaited the sun to break the horizon, Bethany and Brandon got ready in the 11,700’ alpine field beneath Mt. Sneffels. Bethany’s supply of hair and makeup gear was quite impressive - she had a cordless hair straightner (that turned into a hand heating source) and even a light-up makeup mirror. I’ve seen my the amazing Crystal with Wild Brides Backcountry hair and makeup bring all the tools, but never a bride on her own!

Once everyone was ready, Bethany headed up the hill a bit to meet her Groom and pup for their first look and head directly into their self-solmonization ceremony. Looking out over the 2nd lake and towards the booming Dallas Peak, they said their vows to one another with their dog, Zeus, and the San Juan mountains as their only witnesses.

With the sun finally starting to warm all of us up a tidbit, we hung out up top for some photos then made our way back down towards the valley and ever-stunning overlook. On our descent down, we saw little marmots and TONS of flowers. This year, all of the wildflowers lasted into August and were everywhere on the hillsides.

Making a stop at what has become one of my favorite rocky outcrops, the newlyweds toasted with a bottle of Dom. As my husband has now dubbed my job - if you’re not doing Sketchy Shit with Savannah on your wedding day, did we really take any photos? Bethany and Brandon climbed down and did an amazing job having to scramble up on the rock side to get to the best photo spot on the hike down.

Approaching the lower lake, we had our last stop of the morning before hiking back out to the cars.

Once we got back towards town, we all headed for our final destination of the day - Telluride.

Not many mountain towns make me want to upheave my entire life here in the burbs - but if I could somehow afford to live in Telluride, that’s where I’d base myself. Forever and ever. It’s such a near little town, and still has that “mountain town” feel that so many of our touristy places have lost over the years.

Capping off our day, we walked around town and mde our way towards Bridal Veil falls. On our way towards the 4x4 road, we made a pitstop at the local Firestation - Brandon is a firefighter here in the Metro area, and had spoken with the chief about taking some photos out front of the fire house.

Congratulations again, Bethany and Brandon! I had such an amazing day with you two and Zeus.

Cheers -

Savannah