Rifle Falls State Park Wedding Portraits

In an effort to fight some winter blues, I decided that a day trip out to Rifle Falls was in order. With a BHLDN dress, some grocery store flowers, and my trusty sidekick Lynnsey, we made the 90 minute drive out to Rifle, Colorado. ** Scroll to the bottom for updated summer photos so you can see how green this location gets in the summer!

what and where is rifle falls?

On the outskirts of Rifle, Colorado lies Rifle Falls State Park. At $10 per car and a limited number of parking and camp spots, Rifle Falls State Park is a perfect weekend or day trip getaway. It features cascading waterfalls that you can walk around from every angle. From the left! From the right! From below! From above! There is no shortage of viewpoints for these magnificent waterfalls. Rifle Falls State Park also has a cute little amphitheater PERFECT for outdoor elopements or small weddings with 50 guests or less.

On the road to Rifle Falls State Park, you can also hit Rifle Mountain Park. A completely separate set of waterfalls that honestly, I’ve only ever seen frozen. If you’re headed here in the winter, 100000% stop at your local gear shop and grab yourself a pair of handy-dandy micro spikes. It’s pretty much impossible to explore Rifle Mountain Park without them in the winter. However, the frozen waterfalls that cascade hundreds of feet down into the canyon is a sight to see, and surely not to be missed. There are also incredible ice caves here in the winter, another reason to bring microspikes! There aren’t any photos of the ice caves themselves because (as seen below,) we had one set of microspikes between the two of us and DANGER is not my middle name.

rifle mountain park

We started out at Rifle Mountain park. We warmed up in the car and then made our way to one of the many frozen waterfalls. Because most of the falls are on the west side of the canyon that runs north to south, they are all shaded in early/late afternoon (hence why they’re frozen when its 50 degrees out). With one set of micro spikes between the two of us, Lynnsey and I each put one on and made our way over the ice covered bridge up to the falls. It was pretty cold which made me very thankful that I ended up purchasing the white wool coat from Goodwill that Lynnsey is wearing in the photos. If you’d like some other tips on how to stay warm during your winter photoshoot, check out my blog post with some tips and tricks.

rifle falls state park

After we were done freezing in the canyon, we headed over to Rifle Falls State Park. It is smaller but honestly SO COOL and worth the 2 minute hike to the falls. We ended up getting there at the perfect time, where the sun was just about to set behind the little canyon wall and we got to stand in the warmth. If you’ve ever shot with me when it’s cloudy or gloomy and then the sun comes out, you know how excited I was at this moment. I will always and forever love sunlight - for myself, for my mental health, and for your photos.

If you also like sunlight, come visit Colorado where we get 300 + days of sunshine a year - and book yourself a photoshoot. Scroll to the bottom of the photos to see how the location transitions into the most gorgeous lush green landscape in the summer!

Because these photos were taken in February when there was still a lot of snow, I wanted to get back out to Rifle Falls State Park in order to capture the gorgeous green scenery, as well as see how busy the park is in the summer when outdoor weddings are more likely to happen.

Rifle Falls State Park is SO busy in the summer. I had tried to go on a weekend, only to be turned away at the gate because they had already hit capacity. These next set of photos were taken around 7 pm on a Thursday, after the sun had set behind the hills, and there were still about 10-15 people around.

However, I did realize that the snow makes a lot of the park inaccesible. This time around, the entire hike up to the left side of the falls was accessible whereas last time it was covered in a hill of snow and ice. We stumbled on caves, lush green forests, and I included a photo of the wedding ceremony spot this time (that gorgeous brick way, ahhh!) and this spot still holds true as one of my favorite wedding or elopement spots on the west slope.