Back in February, I met Zoë for the first time when she helped me take some product photos for a local sock company. Shortly after, we got to hang out again when I took adventurous couple photos of her and her partner Brannan. At the time it was still winter out here in the high desert and I remember Zoë and Brannan wanting their photos to not look like they were taken in the desert. We ended up wandering around Colorado National Monument and the rest of Grand Junction, and got some amazing photos of the two of them. 

Once this summer rolled in and the mosquitoes calmed down up on the Grand Mesa, they were kind enough to spend the evening adventuring around the Grand Mesa and swimming in the Grand Mesa Lakes. The Grand Mesa is known for the bugs and mosquitoes because of the hundreds of lakes that are scattered over it; and being the largest flat top mesa in North America, there are a lot of them. 

While I hadn’t spent much time up on the Grand Mesa until August, I have been hooked ever since I found myself paddle boarding around the Grand Mesa Lakes, and riding the motorcycle through the pines. The Mesa is remarkable to me because of its proximity to Grand Junction. It’s only an hour away and at least twenty degrees cooler, bringing the average high in the summer down from the mid 90’s to the mid 70’s. It is such a welcome repreive from the hot desert heat, and traveling through such a diverse ecosystem and landscape as you climb up to the top of the Grand Mesa forest is just another reason to love it. Besides that, theres also tons of lakes to swim in, groves of aspen trees, roads of rocky boulders and cliffs, and wildflowers. Moose, bear, and elk are just a few of the wildlife that you’ll find here as well.

So its no wonder that this made the perfect backdrop for Brannan and Zoë when they wanted something green. It’s so lush, even being late August. We had such a fun time adventuring to the different locations, each one varying so differently from the last. By the time the sun began setting behind the trees, we found ourselves at one of the many lakes on the Grand Mesa. The temperature was dropping but I asked Zoë and Brannan if they would be interested in swimming in the chilly lake water for a particular photo. They happily obliged (yay!) and its one of my favorite photos to date. It was taken with the drone and it is the first image to follow. I was so stoked to receive this text message from Zoë after we parted ways:

“Okay so first off thank you so much for having us today! I had such an amazing time and honestly the lake shot felt like a freaking baptism. Like I got out and felt so happy and free and it was so amazing like I was baptized by Mother Nature and came out a crunchy, free spirited, flower child 🥰 thank you so much for suggesting it, I can’t wait to see how they all turn out! Thank you again so much for an amazing beautiful evening 🥰”

If you’re interested in shooting up on the Grand Mesa, book a session with me now! It is one of the few areas outside of the Grand Valley that doesn’t have a summer travel fee because I think this magical forest is so worth it to go out of the way for.

And be sure to check out and support Zoës’ business of colorful stock photos for all your blogging needs!