Mitch & Bobby | Colorado Engagement Photographer | Golden Gate Canyon State Park | Golden, Colorado | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography

Golden Gate Canyon State Park is a real gem for photos because you get such a wide range of landscapes to use as your backdrops. The mountains are lush on one side and arid on the other which gives a lot of variety for photos. There’s also some great areas with open space and good hiking trails to roam around and keep moving around.

This was great for us because Mitch and Bobby wanted to bring their rescue dogs to their shoot. They were recently engaged and so excited, and naturally, their fur-family would be included. We’re the same way! We couldn’t have imagined not having our dogs a part of our engagement session or our wedding. We’re total dog lovers (no surprise there) and love when couples want to bring their four legged friends along!

Mitch worked at a dog grooming and boarding facility and her and Bobby are enthusiastic about rescuing over buying dogs. It was obvious right away that their dogs have a great quality of life now because you could just tell right away how loyal they were. When I wanted to snag a few shots without the pups, Terrence held their leashes and they both couldn’t wait to get back to their owners! Being able to have the trails and paths to keep everyone walking was great for the pups, too.

One pro tip for this location is to meet at the visitor center because the cell reception in this state park is pretty much nonexistent. That is probably the one and only drawback of the spot, if you are meeting up with your photographer in the park instead of driving in together, it can make it hard to actually find each other. The visitor center is pretty easy to find (also, there is an entrance fee so do your due diligence) but it is really convenient for actually hooking up with one another so you’re not driving around the (beautiful) roads unable to find one another!