I’m here to convince you that a 9 mile hike to the most insane mountain views and beautiful clear blue lakes outside of Telluride Colorado is one of the most epic elopement experiences you could have! Convinced?! If not, let me share with you what the experience was like and how to best prepare for it!

Location + Trail Specs

Check out the Blue Lakes Trail on All Trails to see recent reviews, trail conditions, and directions! This blue lake trail is a total of 9 miles round trip in the San Juan Mountains outside of Telluride, Colorado with an elevation gain of $2,500ft. The base of the trail sits way back off the main road where you wind down a very bumpy gravel road for several miles. 4WD would be ideal because there could be seasons where the road is flooded with MAJOR holes or bumps. I did fortunately make it in my small Mazda CX-5 and don’t have 4WD or AWD, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. Especially with the ever changing conditions of the road, you never know what to expect. 

This trail is really steep so it’s important to schedule plenty of time to hike it and experience it. Getting to the first (and most beautiful) blue lake is only 6 miles round trip. However, you don’t want to miss the most EPIC views past the first blue lake. You’ll end up on top of the world with a view of the lake from above and nearly eye level with the most magnificent mountain peaks surrounding you in these grassy open fields. The last portion of the hike to get to these views is the steepest and most strenuous, but SO worth it.

Expect to take 12 hours of your day to do an elopement like this. We started this hike at 10am and made it to the parking lot at 10pm with plenty of time in between to say vows, relax by the water, and take plenty of photos before the sun went down.

A little bit about this Blue Lakes Elopement

Alex and Cierra came to me with epic ideas for their elopement. They just knew they wanted to do an adventure and see some incredible mountains, they just weren’t totally sure where to go or what that would look like exactly. When we talked through their vision together, we created multiple drafts of what their day could look like. We tossed around ideas of renting boats, fishing, driving to multiple locations, hiking, and then once I told them about this incredible hike I did in Telluride and showed them photos of my own personal experience, they were hooked.

We prepared in depth well before their elopement day with everything they needed to bring, ways they could prepare for the altitude and training for the long hike. Here’s a list of items I highly recommended they get before their elopement.

What to Bring and How to Prepare

Weather:

Colorado is known for feeling like summer and winter on the same day so I want to make sure we’re super prepared when doing a hike like this, especially if we’re going to be out late! We’ll probably start the hike in fewer clothes because it might feel pretty warm. But by the time the sun goes down and we are going downhill it could feel very cold! So we want to make sure we bring plenty of layers, food, and water.

Clothes:

Rain Jacket!!! (It’s likely that it will rain at some point while we’re in the mountains)
Fleece (warm layer)
Smart wool socks (bring an extra pair of socks in case the ones you wear get wet)
Hiking boots
Small gloves (glove liners)
Beanie (warm hat)
Shorts + Pants (shorts for the hike up, pants for the hike down)
Hiking Essentials:
Hiking Poles
Headlamps
Backpack
3 liters of water each (would be great if the backpack had a place for a camelbak. It’s a lot easier carrying water that way and also super easy to drink as you hike to stay hydrated)

Food:

A few granola bars/clif bars each
Pack a sandwich each
Trail mix or other filling trail snacks like beef sticks (beef jerky)

Misc. Items

Bug Spray
Sunscreen
First Aid Kit

For this elopement experience, it couldn’t have turned out more perfect! We had the most beautiful weather the entire day, the temperature was perfect for our hike up and wasn’t too cold for our hike down. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day which is so rare for the mountains in Colorado. We practically had the trail to ourselves, only seeing a small handful of people since we picked a date in the middle of the week and strategically avoided holidays. So it felt like we had the entire mountain to ourselves, which in my opinion, makes it so worth it to put the effort into an experience like this.

Why You Should Consider Doing A Strenuous 9 Mile Hike For Your Blue Lakes Elopement

My passion is to give you an experience. I don’t take the word “experience” lightly. This experience is meant to be more than a photo shoot for your elopement. I want the two of you to feel ALIVE with excitement, adventure, and exploration. To see the grandest peaks the earth has to offer and make your day actually memorable.

Doing an experience like this might push yourself beyond anything you ever thought was possible. I’m here to broaden your perspective and show you how possible it is for ANYONE (no matter your skill level) to be able to tackle a hike like this.

You’ll get to see places most people don’t put the effort into seeing. You’ll be far away from the crowds and popular touristy areas and have a mountain peak all to yourself. I love people and all, but to escape the places that are full of people and have the solitude of your own mountain is refreshing and calming. Escaping our modern world and culture helps quiet the frantic noise surrounding us and makes us so present in the moment. We will be thoroughly exhausted after a day like this and I know the perfect place to relax in a hot spring to recover and reminisce on the epic experience you just had. But let me tell you, it’s SO worth it!

Let’s plan your own unique elopement hike!

If this post inspired you to hike the Blue Lakes trail in Telluride, Colorado for your elopement, then lets gooooo! I also have so many hikes and locations under my belt that I’ve been dying to explore with a couple. There’s so many places we could go, mountain peaks to see, alpine lakes to swim in, and it doesn’t have to be all in one day. Who says we can’t take a 2-3 day backpacking trip to go further and deeper than ever before?

So, are you ready to start planning your epic mountain elopement experience?! Reach out to me and let’s start putting a vision into place!