Ilona & Clay – Aspen Adventurous Elopement – Leave No Trace & Respecting Our Land

Before Ilona & Clay got married, we went out to Clay’s family ranch to scope thing for the wedding, and he took us to some of his favorite childhood spots for photos. It was so special to hear all of his stories, being a young boy growing up in Aspen. But what was even more impactful was watching the forest fire burning in the very close distance from the ranch and hearing stories from the people living close by fearing whether the fire would steal away everything from them.

The fire was unfortunately started by two twenty-something boys shooting firearms in the overly dry conditions we experienced in Colorado this summer. This was not a natural occurrence. These boys, and yes I’m calling them boys on purpose, were in complete disobedience of the current fire ban. One little, split second pull of a trigger lit the whole mountain on fire. I nearly felt guilty for using this jaw-dropping sight as Ilona & Clay’s backdrop, but then I thought what better way to turn something horrible into something beautiful and start a conversation about respecting our land.

We often hear people talk about Leave No Trace and respecting the only planet we have as our home. I think often people don’t seem to take this too seriously. They think, “Oh nothing will happen if I do this just this once.” But this is a prime example of people taking our gorgeous land and privileges to experience their beauty for granted.  If you plan to adventure into the wilderness, do everyone and yourself a favor and research the laws and bans that are in that area before you go. Then follow them! We have to take care of what we’ve been given and not destroy such a precious gift.

If you don’t know where to start to learn more about this, my friends over at Cedar & Pines wrote up a great little article about Leave No Trace (even more so specifically for adventure photographers) here.