The Best Photo Locations in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is one of our favorite locations for portraits, including engagement, wedding, and family sessions. Only an hour from Boulder, it’s a great option to get incredible views with big mountains, vast prairies, pine and aspen forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife!

We’ll consult with you to choose the perfect locations for you. We have a couple of different driving loops where we can stop and get stunning photos right from the side of the road. If you’re looking for a little more adventure, there are a ton of different hikes of varying difficulty where we can get into backcountry, further from the crowds, and into lesser seen and stunning views! We’d love to go on an adventure with you!

Fall River Road Entrance

This is the entrance we prefer when the timeline is tight, such as on a wedding day. A short way into the park is an area where we can get multiple great perspectives from one stop.

Beaver Meadows

Right off of US-36, there are a few pullouts that give us stunning views of the vast Beaver Meadows below, Longs Peak in the distance, and multiple layers of mountains on the horizon.

Rainbow Curve Overlook

Nearly 11,000’ up, on the way up Trail Ridge Road, there’s a parking area with incredible views of the Hidden Valley Creek and Horseshoe Park below. This one is a stunner with 270 degree views for miles. During winter season, which is November through May, this is as high up as we can drive in the park.

Forest Canyon Overlook

As long as Trail Ridge Road is open for the season (June through October) we love to drive all the way up to about 12,000’ to the Forest Canyon Overlook. We try to time our sessions to finish here near sunset as the light and views are incredible! It is always colder up here, so be sure to be prepared with some extra layers, a jacket, and a positive attitude :) The views are definitely worth it!

Moraine Park

Moraine Park is a wonderful spot if you’re looking for vast views. Right off of the side of the road, we can enter a beautiful prairie and have multiple angles to work with to get huge mountains in the background. There are some patches of pine trees as well, rocks for some sitting scenes, and works really well with the light any time of the day.

Sprague Lake

If you’d like to include some water in your scenery, Sprague Lake is the most accessible. There’s a short 5 minute walk through beautiful pine forest to get to the lake. This is also a great area if we’re seeking out fall colors when the aspens are changing.

Emerald Lake and Dream Lake

If you’d like to get a bit more into the backcountry and are up for a 3 mile round trip hike, the Emerald Lake hike is a stunner with a ton of amazing scenery along the way. This hike includes waterfalls, giant rocks, sprawling views, and the two lakes along the way. Emerald Lake gets a lot of the glory at the end point of this hike because it’s a beautiful alpine lake directly at the foot of Flattop Mountain and Hallett Peak, but Dream Lake is probably our favorite as it’s a bit further from those peaks, which provides a more photogenic perspective. It’s also a bit less crowded there than Emerald, which is where everyone stops to rest, eat lunch, and enjoy the view.

Planning the Session Itinerary

As much as we’d love to, we certainly can’t cover everything in one session, so we’ll discuss some options with you to see which sort of locations resonate most with you and try to combine a few during our session time. We never want to try to pack too many stops in our session, because it’s a better experience for everyone to be able to take our time working the locations we choose than to rush around and try to do too many. The primary factor for us in planning is the light. We prefer the golden hour leading up to sunset, so we always work our planning back then, so if we’re doing a 2 hour session, we plan to meet up 2 hours before sunset. Check out this link for more information on planning the engagement session!

We generally choose from 3 different combinations. If we’re doing a hike, like Emerald Lake, we plan to focus just on that adventure and shoot at a variety of scenes along the hike. If we’re doing a driving loop, Rocky NP essentially forks in two directions from Estes Park. Entering in the Beaver Meadows Entrance, we can work Beaver Meadows, then continue south to Moraine Park, then perhaps finish at Sprague Lake. We may do these in a different order depending on the way the lighting is looking. The second fork leads us northwest up US-36 toward the Alpine Visitor Center. We may start from the Fall River Road or Beaver Meadows Entrance, then make our way up to Rainbow Curve, finishing at Forest Canyon Overlook.

Know that we’re always open for collaboration, so if you see a view along the way that calls to you, we’d be happy to stop and work that scene! Since we can’t control the weather, the clouds, the crowds, or the lighting, we’re always adapting along the session, so if things don’t end up exactly according to the plan we come up with ahead of time, know that these modifications and changes will likely result in better images!

The Best Boulder Photography Spots

OUR FAVORITE BOULDER PHOTO LOCATIONS

We are so fortunate to call Boulder Colorado our home! We moved here in 2017 to be closer to the mountains we love to play in. It also provided a huge upgrade to the scenery in our portrait sessions. Boulder is surrounded by thousands of acres of recreational open space, conservation easements, and nature preserves. Here are some of our favorite photo locations we’ve worked at over the years. This page will focus mostly on locations, however, if you’re interested in learning more about detailed planning and what to expect on photo session with us, be sure to check out this page!

In general, we prefer evening sessions, both for logistics and for the quality of light in the late day. We love the warm tones of the setting sun, crossing our fingers for an epic sunset, and sometimes shooting a bit into the “blue hour.” We plan our photo sessions to start two hours before we lose the light. In the front range, since we lose the sun behind the mountains, this is different than official “sunset.” We have an app we love to use to allow us to visualize exactly when the sun dips behind the mountains so we can plan around that time.

Note that we do not charge for travel within an hour of Boulder.

Chautauqua Park

Chautauqua Park is a classic Boulder destination. You cannot beat the ease of access and proximity to the iconic Flatirons. The large grassy field provides a beautiful foreground, which varies depending on the time of year. In the spring, it’s full of lush, green grass. As the season progresses, the grasses grow longer and brown out, giving us the wonderful warm tones we love! We tend to plan our sessions here toward sunset, so that we have a nice backlit scene. Early in the day the sun is very bright and direct on our subjects, so we avoid those times as well as the harsh mid-day sun. Boulder Open Spaces do require a photo permit which costs $30. We will do all the legwork to obtain the permit, but you will be responsible to cover this cost.

Lost gulch overlook

A twenty minute drive up Flagstaff Mountain from Chautauqua Park is an amazing viewpoint that showcases the Indian Peaks. This is probably one of the closest locations in Boulder to get views of the bigger, high alpine mountains. With only a minute hike from the lot to the views, it’s easily accessible. We also love this location for the pine forest around the area, so we can get a variety of scenes. This location shoots best in the evening, but also works well right at sunrise where the subject can be in the shade but the mountains in the background will be well lit. We frequently combine Chautauqua Park with Lost Gulch for our two hour sessions, getting two of the best Boulder photo locations in one session. Boulder Open Spaces do require a photo permit which costs $30. We will do all the legwork to obtain the permit, but you will be responsible to cover this cost.

brainard lake

Brainard Lake, while technically in Ward, is only forty five minutes from downtown Boulder, so we love to frequent this location! This really is one of the most picturesque Colorado views with an alpine lake near the base of the 13,000 ft mountains of the Indian Peaks. This location is only accessible from mid-June to around Labor Day, otherwise the access road is closed because of deep snow. It is about a 1.5 mile hike to the lake from the winter trailhead (which we’re always down for!) so if you’re up for a little adventure outside of the summer, the snowy peaks will not disappoint. The field there also has stunning wildflowers in the spring. We’ve also spotted moose in the area before! Given the trek to get here, we generally do this location in the two hours leading up to sunset. We have done a sunrise elopement in the Brainard backcountry that was epic! Just be prepared for a 4 am wakeup. There is an entry fee to this area. We always hold a National Park pass which covers our entry, so if you’d like to ride in with us, we have you covered!

wonderland lake/Fourmile creek trail

Wonderland Lake is a little gem in North Boulder. It starts in the rolling foothills off of Lee Hill Road and hikes south toward the Flatirons. They are at a distance, so it provides a really cool perspective that is lesser seen. We really love this area in the late summer into fall because the browned out rolling hills provide some really nice backgrounds. This spot also works well in the winter, with all of the sunlight it gets, it’s one of the first places where snow melts.

ncar trail

The NCAR trail starts essentially right at the base of the Flatirons and hikes us into the beautiful Boulder Open Space. This is our top pick for a sunrise session, many of the scenes we shoot in are shaded for the subjects while the Flatirons are brilliantly lit by the rising sun! This provides for incredible portrait lighting! The hike out and back is about one mile, and passes through a variety of forest, prairie, and mountain scenes.

Downtown Denver

While many of the photo session we do are out in nature, we also love to get into the city and work with some urban landscapes! Downtown Denver has tons of cool architecture and mini-scenes to work with, so there’s no shortage of great locations! Union Station is frequently a starting point for that iconic Denver scenery. When we shoot in Denver, we love to incorporate some more lifestyle sort of moments, having you get a drink or explore a new spot!

other nearby options

Red Rocks - morrison

Only fifty minutes from Boulder, Red Rocks offers stunning scenery of all types: red rocks, sweeping fields, rolling mountains, and desert vibes. Our favorite trail here is the Trading Post Trail, a 1.5 mile loop with very little elevation gain. We have lots of little scenes along the way we like to stop at to give you a wide variety of backdrops. No permit is required here, the only tricky part can be parking if there is a concert at the amphitheater that night, we just have to plan ahead with where we park and factor in a short, additional hike.

Rocky mountain national park - estes park

Estes Park is only an hour from Boulder and provides some of the most stunning and easily accessible mountain views! Rocky Mountain National Park has a nearly infinite amount of scenic variety. If you’re interested in a hike, we can get away from some of the crowds, get into the backcountry, and have a little adventure! If you’d prefer not to hike, we have a loop we like to drive where we stop at several roadside views to take portraits. We’ll chat with you ahead of time to decide on the sort of views you would like in your photos: high alpine, prairie, forest, lakes, rivers, whatever you’d like! There is no permit required, however entry to the park must be purchased. We always have an Annual National Park pass, so if you’d like to ride with us, we can get you in.

Oldman mountain - estes park

If you want some of the stunning Rocky Mountains in your photo but don’t want to enter the National Park there’s an amazing spot right in the heart of Estes Park called Oldman Mountain. It is a 1.2 mile out and back hike with a 426 ft elevation gain, enough to get you above town and surrounded by panoramic mountain views! There’s lots of forest and interesting rock formations along the way, so we get a lot of variety!

Lookout mountain - Golden

Lookout Mountain is a fantastic and easily accessible area we love to do family portrait sessions at. Just outside of Golden and only fifty minutes from Boulder, there are incredible views of the foothills in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, Clear Creek Canyon, and more! These views can be accessed immediately from the parking lot, so an excellent choice for children.

looking for a bigger adventure?

If you’re up for a long drive and getting further into Colorado’s mountains, we’d love to hear what you have in mind! Colorado has so much beauty to offer and we’re always down for an adventure! Here are a couple of epic locations that are absolutely worth the drive!

loveland pass

Highway 6 will drive you right up to the top of the Continental Divide on Loveland Pass. Here, you’re right in the high alpine peaks, getting some of the most incredible views of the peaks and valleys. We’ve done sessions here at all different times of the year, just make sure you’re prepared for anything from high alpine sun to cold and windy conditions!

Great sand dunes national park

Great Sand Dunes is about four hours from Boulder, so this one requires a big commitment, but is very much worth the drive! If you haven’t been to the Dunes before, it feels like you stepped off of Earth and onto Mars! It has giant, sprawling sand dunes surrounded by huge Colorado mountains. As this is a National Park, there is a photo permit and entry fee required.

any location that’s special to you!

While these are some of our favorite go-to locations, we are always down to explore somewhere new and go on an adventure with you! If there are any hikes or places that are special to you, let us know! Having this added connection to the location can make your photos all the more memorable for you. You are also welcome to let us know the sort of scenic vibes you are looking for and we can do some research and suggest some new ideas!