Finding a location for your hiking elopement can be challenging, especially when you are traveling abroad for your elopement. If you’ve never been to the location, how will you know where to elope? You’ve looked at hundreds of stunning images online, and picked out locations that look epic, but how do you know if they’re suitable for you? What about the logistics, difficulty, season, etc? I’m about to share my current top 3 locations for hiking elopements in Alberta. But first, here are a few things to consider.

How Does the Season Affect the Hike we Choose?

Some hikes back further in the mountains can have snow as early as October. Also, in the spring, the snow can stay quite late into May or even June. So sometimes the ridges are clear, but the trees still have waist deep snow. I’ll mention the best seasons for the hikes below, so you can see an example of this! Summer time can sometimes be smokey in Alberta, and weekends can have a ton of tourists. I’d recommend to try to plan for a week day if you’re hiking elopement will be in the summer. This can also help you choose a good location for your hiking elopement.

What time of Day Should we do Our Hiking Elopement?

I tell everyone this, but also every single hiking elopement I do, we do at sunrise. It such an amazing experience to hike up in the dark and watch the sun rise from a summit. There is not another soul in sight (usually), and its so quiet and peaceful. Often the weather is better in the morning as well, and less risk for thunderstorms. However, sometimes of course it can be windy or rainy, because it’s the mountains. But if you want that golden, glowy light, with the pink capped peaks and soft shadows, sunrise is the time to do it. Sunset is also another option if you’re not a morning person, and you’ll get similar light then too. Some hikes are better too for either sunrise or sunset, depending on the direction the location is facing. However, a lot of ridges work well at either time because there are views in all directions.

How to Know the Difficulty of the Hike for our Hiking Elopement

It’s hard to determine the difficulty level, because it’s different for everyone. If you’ve hiked a ton, some hikes that are hard to novices will be not so hard for you, and vice versa. So I usually suggest hike options on a case by case basis, as I talk to each individual client. I usually ask how much you have hike, and where and how long etc. It definitely helps to be in shape in general, but hiking up a mountain is still a whole different beast if you’ve never done that before. There are easier and moderate hikes too that can still get you great views, but it is true that usually the most epic, top-of-the-world hikes are a bit harder.

Without further ado, here are my top 3 locations for hiking elopements in Alberta. Just a note, this is always changing, as I’m constantly finding new locations and shooting in new places!

Tent Ridge Hiking Elopement

Tent Ridge is a fantastic ridge walk for hiking elopements. Often, we’ll just go up and down the same side, although the hike is a loop if you so choose. The ridge has unbelievable views in every direction. Spray lakes one way, and many layers of peaks the other way. It’s absolutely epic at either sunrise or sunset. This hike usually is not doable until very late spring, or early summer because of snow in the trees at the bottom. But it sure is a popular location for hiking elopements, and for good reason! Definitely avoid weekends as it can be quite crowded then.

East End of Rundle

This is a classic too. The greatest thing about this hike is it can usually be done quite early in the season, and quite late into the fall as well! It’s a challenging hike, with some steep scree areas, but I’ve had a wide variety of clients do this hike. Sometimes it takes longer for less experienced people, so we just have to plan for that! After you get up past the scree, it opens up into a beautiful meadow area, where we are often met with sheep and sometimes goats! It’s a great spot for a ceremony, and there are some neat cliffs and lookouts to get amazing photos on too! The way the light hits the peaks at sunrise makes this one super epic at that time of day.

Little Arethusa Hiking Elopement

This hike was a new one for me this year. I typically don’t do new hikes with clients, but my clients had done this hike and so I was ok with that! It ended up being one of my favorite elopements ever. This is a great one for sunrise, especially in the fall to avoid the crowds. The valley below is a popular larch hike, so can get quite crowded in the fall season. However, in the summer, the meadow is full of beautiful wild flowers. And the mountains in the background from the summit are super epic ! It’s an amazing one.

I hope you enjoyed my current top 3 locations for hiking elopements! Can’t wait to see what next year brings. Also, if you want to do the legal ceremony on the summit, you must reach out to Cole Hofstra as he is the only officiant I know who hikes. And he’s amazing !