Snowy Engagement Photo Session at Gold Creek Pond

Last week I headed for nearby Snoqualmie Pass where I met up with Jessica and Ryan for their engagement photo session.  We had talked for awhile about setting up a session, but the mountain conditions had been super snowy in late February and early March, and finding a good day for Ryan and Jessica that would also allow us to actually get out and take the photos had been challenging.  So when we got a favorable forecast on one of Jessica’s free days we decided it was time.

As it turned out the weather was almost too good!  Sunny skies and very bright, and combined with lots of nice white snow that meant conditions that are not exactly what a photographer dreams of for good lighting.  But hey, nothing like a challenge to make things more interesting!

There had been so much snow recently that the road into the pond was under ~4-5 feet of snow, and access to cars had been blocked off.  We met at the entrance to the access road and hiked in from there, a distance of about 1/2 mile.  Though the snow was very deep it was quite solid on the surface (at least in most places) and we were able to make our way in wearing normal hiking boots.  We did see numerous other hikers planing to do a longer hike who were wearing snowshoes.  I’m just glad that did not prove to be necessary for us!

Walking on Gold Creek Pond

When we got to the pond we were surprised to find that it was not only completely covered with snow, but that the snow and ice over the pond was thick enough that there were tracks from other hikers over parts of the pond.  This is a pretty good sized pond, well over 1/4 mile across and a mile-plus to walk around, and complete coverage with ice and snow in March is slightly unusual.

We decided to brave walking onto the pond, initially following the existing tracks to what is normally a small island in the center of the pond.  Then we walked further into the center of the pond to get photos with untracked snow.  I was a bit nervous about this, but the snow/ice proved to be extremely solid and we made it back to shore without any difficulties.

Trail around the pond

The sun was super bright and with the reflections off the snow Jessica was finding it really bright.  If I had not had sunglasses I would have felt the same way.  We decided to make our way around the pond, which would give us a chance to get into some tree cover and get a little shade.  I hoped that this would also give me some better light for photos.

As we walked around the pond and stopped often for photos, we could see some clouds moving in from the south that looked like they would at least filter the sunlight.  Sure enough, shortly before we made it back to the beginning of the loop trail the clouds reached the sun and greatly reduced the overall brightness, allowing us to take photos without Jessica and Ryan needing to keep their backs to the sun to keep from having a bad case of the “blinkies” during photos.

We finally made it back to the cars and called it a day.  A really fun hike and a lot of good photos!