RMNP Dream Lake V & K sunrise Proposal

Saturday wasn’t only a big day for me, but an even bigger day for these two!!! V was from India and K was from RUSSIA!!!! I WAS SO EXCITED!!! We met at 4:45am this time since the sun keeps creeping up earlier and earlier 🙌☀️ and off to the trailhead we went! 
The winds weren’t tooooo bad but it was probably 15mph out. That’s good for Estes so we will take it!!! We made it to nymph lake and blue hour began! A little ahead of schedule so we walked around the lake playing around. When we arrived at the overlook above nymph lake there were just a couple colors out but the clouds were just hogging all the light and color. So we trekked I’m ahead! Almost to dream lake the nerves were setting in I’m sure! She had no idea but he was completely aware of the events to unfold! We got to the lake and of course it’s the worst. The lake always has the worst winds :( so we didn’t wanna stay long. We walked out to the middle and I posed them around a bit. Then it was time. I put them back to back took a couple shots then I tell her to step forward a bit, point to him to get down, and then I have her turn around. The process is priceless every time!!! The reactions are all so genuine my heart just melts!!!!! Words lasted long here allowing time for me to move around and get different shots! I was stoked! She said yes with a gleeful laugh and they both rejoiced in the moment!!!! It’s always so beautiful and I can’t believe I get to experience this over and over!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️ what a wonderful life this is!❤️❤️❤️❤️
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Many thanks again to my wonderful assistant @focusinwithmolly 📸❤️📸💪

Oh! The other SUPER EXCITING thing that happened to me Saturday..... I AM NOW WILDERNESS AND REMOTE FIRST AID AND CPR CERTIFIED!!!!🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 baby steps to bigger things!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️🧜‍♀️

Agnes Creek Cabin

We made it back!!! this was our second time here and we added 2 new faces to our group!

Paul and Megan again came in for the win with this booking!!! months in advance you have to get these sweet places and thats so hard for someone who's on a starving artist budget!!! So thanks again you two!!! we couldn't be more grateful!!!!!

since trey and i had to drop off our dog we ended up getting on the road later than we wanted. it was ok though because our drive was only 3 hours or so and the hike was only 1.5-2 miles max!!! since we had done it before we were comfortable arriving during sunset. 
sure enough the sun was setting at we hiked up. it was only about an hour hike but definitely dark when we arrived. as we opened the door cheers rang out so loud!!!! they didn't think we were actually were coming, so it was a nice surprise when we showed up!

since it was super dark and cold we all just played backcountry trivia games around the bunk beds and then crashed out for an early morning!!!

Sunrise was golden and beautiful without a cloud in the sky, so it was a quite crisp and cold 10 degrees out! Paul was the first awake after me and just had to get his board on and down the hill to start building jumps!!!! it was 7:08am...... and thats what i call dedication!!!

the rest of the group slowly started to wake up and come outside to see the beauty! it was a perfect day! powder still in the trees and ALL over the ground! wind was nowhere in sight and the sun was glowing away!!! we didn't have many plans for the morning... just to play around building jumps and what not..... it wasn't until the evening we had big plans to hike up to lake agnes!!!

i spent the day shooting away...... it was the first real time i was using my brand new Nikon D5 so i just wanted to shoot people jumping instead of jumping myself! this is where i ran into my first real problem...... this new body has more focus point than the last one yet i couldn't figure out how to move my focus point! it was KILLING ME!!!! here i had this new faster more amazing machine so very similar i had all confidence in using it and i couldn't even figure out a single function. i was so upset!!!! but for now I had a way around this and just shot in manual. things came out well, but nowhere near as badd ass as they could. so many photos not in focus :-/ but i did get some! and the gang was overly impressed so that was good i guess. 

evening approached as we grilled our turkey bacon and asparagus, so we started to pack what we needed and headed out for the lake! this was the part i couldn't wait for!!!! i was STOKED to get the frozen lake under stars this time!!!!!! as i was gathering my lenses ands snow shoes i couldn't find one thing.... one VERY IMPORTANT thing...... my TRIPOD!!!! :-O i freaking left my dang tripod in the car?! HOW!?!?!?! I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!! but my heart was crushed. i had a new amazing tool and i wasn't even going to be able to truly put it to the test... :( ohwell, off we went.

this time hiking up we set off a little later then we expected but were able to make it to the lake right as blue hour was ending..... the stars were just beginning to peek out and the ICE...... the ice was beyond AMAZING!! i couldn't believe how smooth it was?!?!? I've seen so many alpine lakes this year and this one was by far the smoothest.... and how petrvect for us because 3 in our group had ice skates!!!!! YUP!!!!!!! we hiked up skates and had a blast playing around. i will admit i ran off the lake so damn fast like 3 times...... I'm pretty sure because it was just sunset and the temps were dropping the lake was talking to us...... but when a lake talks to you in that big deep loud ass voice i get a little sketched. the loud THOOOUMP that stretched from way beyond my left ear underneath me to ringing in the right ear way off to the lake edge made me run like speedy gonzales! my friend on the skates joked how she looked up and i was way gone and i had on my boots no traction!!!! my ass was NOT going into that lake!!! i know the law..... one inch holds 100lbs, 2 inches holds 200lbs, 3 inches hold 300lbs and when you get to 7 inches it exponentially increases in strength and can hold up to 1200lbs..... and the ice i was on was beyond 2 feet thick......but i was a SCARDY CAT!!!!!!!

anyways the cold began to take a nose dive so we decided it was time to head back down to our cabin. it was a nice hike down with our headlamps and the moonlight. by far the highlight of my trip even though i didn't get the star shots i was so desperately hoping for <3 we were all pretty exhausted so we all went in and got ready for bed. we played a couple more games and crashed out hard, we had a nice long day! 

next morning we were all up for sunrise!!! its hard not to be when its just so glorious out!! since checkout was 10 we just all cooked brekkie and then cleaned and packed up ready to snowboard down! another one of the best parts of this place is the fact we can snowboard almost the entire way back down to the car! it AWESOME!!!! so we put on our packs and headed down one by one.
the ride this go around was a bit easier for me, since I've been practicing, it was nice to see my improvements!!!

Thanks for following along!!!!
if you're looking for more information on this place just go to the link below!!
http://neversummernordic.com/page/agnes-creek-cabin

Have you been to a backcountry hut?!?

 

Chasm Lake Hike | Colorado Adventure Travel Photographer

Aperture: ƒ/22

Camera: NIKON D3S

Taken: 20 December, 2017

Copyright © 2016 Chelsea Stockton

Focal length: 24mm

ISO: 320

Shutter speed: 1/80s