Rachel & Ryan’s Sunset Adventure in Vermont Mountains

SWELL & STONE / ADVENTURE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER / VERMONT & BEYOND

Rachel & Ryan’s day two of their beautiful elopement style wedding in the incredible Green Mountains of Vermont was not short of spectacular. Click HERE to see day one of their wedding in Rhode Island. We had pretty much the nicest day on the mountain that I can remember. Most of the time it’s really windy on the ridge line and summit, and cold even in August sometimes. It was October and there was only a slight breeze and it was 70 degrees, even on the ridge line. Rachel choose her day two dress expecting chilly temps and instead was greeted with warm weather and beautiful views. We began the hike and it was clear that sweating too much was going to be the issue, not hiking fast to stay warm!

They brought their jeep up the road and the fall foliage was so incredible everywhere that we stopped multiple times to play in the leaves and take in all the colors of the trees. The had a blast throwing leaves and running around like little kids. Because we spent so much time doing that we were a little worried we might miss sunset, but started the hike with well over an hour before the sun went down. The incredible thing about this spot is that you have 360 degree views pretty much the whole way. We watched the sun sink over Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks and we reached the summit just before sunset. Rachel and Ryan danced and took in the views from the summit as color lit the sky. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets in recent memory and was made even better by the fact that we could hang out comfortably on the summit while it was happening. I’ve been on this peak over 25 times in the last several years and every single time there is a different type of weather to contend with. Normally, we are either racing fog to the summit, fighting snow, or battling high winds and chilly temps in wedding attire. This was one of the first times we could just sit and take it all in!

It was so nice up top that the hike out, even though it was in partial darkness, was really nice. So nice that I suggested we hang out a few more minutes to watch the stars come out. They were happy to, and we got some amazing milky way and night sky photos. I took one more shot of them and then they were able to head down the mountain while I laid in the meadow with my camera time lapsing for the next hour so I could create the star trail image (the one with the stars in a circle) that you see above. It was a very satisfying end to a beautiful day on the mountain.