Erin reached out to us in the spring, and from the very first message we knew this one was going to be special. She and Ryan met in Crested Butte on a ski trip several years prior — a mutual friend group, a few days on the mountain, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, something clicked. A week or so later, everyone went out for drinks, and they’ve been together ever since. When it came time to plan their engagement session, coming back to Crested Butte felt like the only answer.
We could not have agreed more.
They asked for natural, warm, and vibrant. They wanted to be in the thick of the aspens and to feel the scale of the mountains. They brought their two dogs, Dolly and Huck, a black lab mix and a chocolate lab mix. And they were refreshingly honest with us from the start: both a little camera-shy, both more comfortable being silly than posed, and both just genuinely happy to be outside together. That is honestly our favorite kind of session to walk into.
We started at Lost Lake Slough in the dark. Pre-dawn at nearly 10,000 feet in October means headlamps, cold air, and a lake that is completely still before the wind finds it. That stillness is what makes the reflection possible. Erin and Ryan stood on a boulder at the shore as the sky began to shift, and just laughed.
As the alpenglow built on the peaks and the sky shifted from gray to gold, we moved around the lake, catching them walking the shoreline, holding hands, completely unbothered by the camera. Ryan is the calm one, Erin will tell you — steady and grounding where she can get a little flustered. But watching them together, you would never know either of them had any nerves at all. They were easy and warm and completely themselves, which is everything we hope for.
Dolly and Huck joined us throughout parts of the session and, predictably, were absolute chaos in the best possible way.
We wrapped the lake as the morning light filled in fully and the alpenglow gave way to open sky, then headed deeper into the aspen groves for the second part of the session. Erin and Ryan changed into their second outfits — flannel and a cozy sweater, perfectly suited to the forest. The grove was at its absolute peak. Yellow leaves on the ground, white trunks in every direction, golden canopy overhead. We framed the low wide-angle looking up through the trees, and it felt like standing inside something ancient, which, as it turns out, is literally true — but more on that below.
The ring deserves its own mention. A radiant cut solitaire on a gold band, and Erin wore it with so much ease. We set it on a turned aspen leaf on a weathered log for the details of the ring to shine through.
Erin and Ryan are planning to stay in Colorado for a while longer before eventually making their way back to the East Coast — she is from outside Philadelphia, he is from outside Pittsburgh — but they built something real here, and this place clearly has a hold on them. They told us they want Mountain Magic Media for their wedding, and we are completely here for it. Getting to document the next chapter for two people you already connect with is one of the best parts of this work.
If you are considering Kebler Pass for your engagement session, here is what you need to know from people who have spent years photographing here.
Kebler Pass Road runs west out of Crested Butte toward Paonia and sits at roughly 10,000 feet in elevation. The aspen grove along this corridor is one of the largest contiguous aspen colonies in the world — a single interconnected root system spanning thousands of acres. In peak fall color, typically mid to late September through early October, depending on the year, the entire landscape turns gold almost overnight.
Lost Lake Slough is our most-requested location along the pass and for good reason. The lake sits below a dramatic ridgeline, and on a calm morning, the reflections are extraordinary — arriving before dawn, before any wind develops, is how you get the glassy water you see in these images. The lake feels quiet in the mornings because all of the campers and hikers are just waking up, but the lake can be busy in the evenings with people fishing and recreating.
The location is accessible via a dirt road and does not require any significant hiking, making it a strong choice for couples who want maximum visual impact without a long approach.
The aspens deeper along the pass offer something different — towering groves of trees, filtered light, and a sense of being completely enclosed by the color. We typically plan sessions that move between the two environments, which is exactly what we did with Erin and Ryan.
Fall color at Kebler Pass can shift quickly and varies year-to-year for the exact timing of peak foliage. It is also based on weather and elevation. As your date approaches, we are happy to advise on which locations along the pass are likely to be at their best.
Dogs are welcome on most of the terrain we use along the pass, and we always love it when couples bring them.
If Kebler Pass is calling you, we would love to talk. This is our backyard, and there is nothing we love more than sharing it.
