The Best Places to Elope in the US in 2024
Intro
Deciding where and when you want to elope is one of the most fun (and important) decisions you’ll make when planning your elopement.
In this guide, we’re gonna give month-by-month suggestions of our favorite regions of the western US, and tell you why we think each spot is worth considering (or ruling out!). All based on our experience travelling to these locations and the hundreds of adventure elopements we’ve done.
A few notes on “best”
First, it’s totally subjective — we’re gonna focus on locations we love, the months we love visiting them, and what in particular makes these recommendations good for an elopement — because what makes a place and time great for an elopement isn’t the same as what makes a spot great to simply visit. Really everyone should see whatever they can, whenever they can. There are just some extra considerations when you choose to toss a wedding in the mix.
We’re talking about things like crowdedness, weather, seasonal considerations, and accessibility. We won’t be making any judgements here on whether desert areas are better than mountainous ones, or forests, or coastal beaches — we love all these spots, so we’ll leave that to you 🤙🏻
All of our advice boils down to the fact that the best time to elope anywhere is right before or after an area’s peak season.
That means being really picky (and realistic) about where you elope between June and August, as these are the busiest months pretty much everywhere.
Peak seasons are peak for reasons™, but the drawbacks (more crowds, more traffic, more lines, more competition for permits and locations, less lodging, more stress) often hinder plans for a chill elopement. Even if these things don’t generally bother you while travelling, adding a wedding complicates and strains things. Seeing Delicate Arch out in Moab with 200 people at sunrise is incredible experience. Looking for privacy to exchange vows there during peak season, less incredible.
Off-season is more convenient for a bunch of reasons, but we think it also puts you more in touch with a place. You aren’t just going when conditions are perfect — you’re going to see a place for everything that it is, appreciating it in ways and at times others generally don’t.
This has led to some of our best travel experiences!
January: Colorado Front Range
If you’re gonna get married in the west where it snows, you might as well be in a charming place!
Places and towns out here stay accessible even through decent snowfalls (we’re prepared for it!). Rocky Mountain National Park is accessible year-round, and a handful of its roads get cleared throughout the season. Notable exception: Trail Ridge Road closes seasonally, as it regularly sees 20ft of snow!
When we think of Colorado in January, we think of:
Charming, snowy landscapes
Beautiful, snowy mountain tops
Elk crunching through fresh snow
Glittery powdered snow falling from pine needles
Brisk, brilliant alpenglow sunrises
Ceremonies out on frozen lakes
Hot coffee in an Airbnb
Hot tubbing at a cabin
Snuggling weather
SWEATERS
Best chance for fluffy, beautiful snow, less chance for rainy-icy snow
Snow shoeing, snowmobiling, ice skating, skiing
Also good in January: Central Colorado, Moab, Big Sur, Big Bend National Park
February: Big Bend NP & Marfa, TX
Big Bend is one of the most remote parks in the lower 48 (even if you live in Texas), but man-oh-man is it worth the drive time! It wasn’t really on our radar until one of our couples brought us on one of their favorite hikes for their elopement. We were instantly hooked.
Not too far from Big Bend, the town of Marfa,TX is just magic and holds a special place in our hearts. It’s a stylish little oasis way out in west Texas with an amazing art scene, great food, drinks, coffee. The town’s cute-as-hell and an absolute vibe. It feels real.
Going in February lets you escape the cold (if you live in a place that gets cold!) and beat the heat of the desert as well. Expect pleasant days, chilly nights and mornings. This is strictly the off-season, so crowds are very minimal and lodging prices are low, with great availability.
When we think of Big Bend:
EXPANSIVE desert views in all directions
Rivers carving through tall canyons
Towering red rock formations
Javelinas & lizards
Solitude & privacy
Rugged dirt roads
Pristine starry skies
And Marfa:
Undeniably charming desert town
Stylish, hip
Music, artists, art exhibits
Cute coffee shops and grocery store
Boutique hotels
Road runners and Prickly Pear
Beautiful mornings walking around town
Bangin’ thrift stores
Also: Moab, Big Sur
March: Moab, UT!
With two national parks, a state park and 1000s of acres of BLM land, there’s no shortage of amazing hikes and great off-roading routes to explore at every ability level in this desert gem. It’s home to the largest concentration of natural arches in the world, and chill, kind people that love the outdoors. Worth noting that the canyons carved here by the Colorado river are pretty damn grand and so much less crowded.
Here’s what Moab in March brings to mind:
Truly unique, vast desert landscape
Incredible arches and canyons
So, so many off-roading and MTB routes
A magnet for outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds
Accessible for remote, private, permit-free locations
Two national parks, a state park, 1000s of acres of BLM land
Surprisingly green & lush
Spring snow with spring greenery
Cool, thriving, friendly town
The best co-op and some damn fine coffee (and breakfast burritos)
Kayak, camp, see fossils & dinosaur footprints, petroglyphs
Also good: Zion, Sedona, Joshua Tree, Death Valley
April: Zion NP
Each visit to Zion is incredible. The majority of the access to the park lies at the bottom of a canyon, and you can’t help but gaze up and out over incredible features.
You could hike the iconic Angel’s landing, or rent e-bikes to ride up the canyon on your way to hiking limitless miles through the Narrows. Zion’s similar to Moab — best visited in the spring or fall!
April brings the start of a surprising amount of greenery, flowers, critters, and water features. The temps too are getting comfortable (especially for hiking), and the crowds and heat are still a month or more away.
When we think of Zion, we think:
Towering canyon walls all around
Super lush!
Charming nearby towns
Overlooks, slot canyons, rivers, waterfalls
Hike the narrows, hike to canyon overlooks
Rock climbing
E-bikes!
Also good: Moab, PNW Coast, Redwoods
May: Redwoods National & State parks
Summer’s the best time of year to visit this incredible forest, and early summer especially. Temps are great for hiking (you’ll want to bring layers of course), rainfall is low, and peak season isn’t yet into full swing. There’s a real magic in being among trees so incredibly enormous, old, and still.
The Redwoods brings to mind:
Ancient, unfathomably-tall trees
Beautiful light rays streaming in between branches
Backlit moss and butterflies
Cool, damp, fragrant forest air
Textures in bark and rock
Literally awe-some, tranquil
• Peak season begins •
The mid-summer months are the peak season pretty much everywhere: the weather’s hot, but predictable, folks have long holiday weekends, breaks from school, and summer in general makes folks want to get out and travel!
We’re highlighting places where it’s still unavoidably busy in town, but have plenty of remote access and opportunities for private, awesome locations.
June: Oregon & Washington coasts
WE LOVE THE COAST, and take a long road trip out there most years if we can.
A couple years back, we spent a few weeks exploring the Oregon coast from top to bottom, and found so many incredible private rocky beaches, beautiful spots to catch a sunset, and tide pools to explore. It was peak season, but we still found so many places to get away from crowds.
What this coastline makes us think of:
Waves crashing
Long sunrise walks along the shore with our dog
Shorebirds everywhere (puffins!)
Colorful starfish and anemones in tidepools
Deep orange and purple sunsets over the water
Charming seaside towns
Foggy cool mornings and evenings with pleasant afternoons
Cozy morning coffee
Moss, dense vegetation
Whale watching, sailing, picnicking
Contrast to lush, peaceful forest just inland
Rugged, desolate coast
Beach bonfires
Rainforest trails that end in a secluded beach. So many beach trails!
Also good in June: Colorado, Olympic National Park, Glacier National Park, Redwoods Nat’l Park
July: Colorado (especially the San Juans)!
This is the epitome of “Colorful Colorado” — between the multi-colored mountains, wildflowers, and lush greens, color is everywhere here. Ouray, Telluride and Silverton top our list (and they’re all wonderful).
Rugged, colorful, jagged mountains
Tons of hiking and off-roading opportunities
Remote and private
Cool mountain towns with nice accommodations: stay in an eco-lodge, camp, or stay in a luxury boutique hotel
Wildflowers and wildlife!
Accessibility of the area is best as far as what’s open: roads are open, conditions good — mudslides and rock slide issues that come with spring are resolved by July
Chilly mornings, comfortable daytime temps at elevation
Streams, rivers, waterfalls
Lush forests
The San Juans are pretty much entirely National Forest, so it’s very flexible for where/how you can get married
Other good spots in July: North Cascades Nat’l Park, Grand Teton Nat’l Park, Glacier Nat’l Park
August: North Cascades
These really might be the best mountains in the continental US (no offense to Colorado)! The National Park itself is awesome, and one of the least-visited, but the surrounding areas are equally breath-taking and absolutely worth exploring too.
When we think of the Cascades, we think of:
Sweeping mountainous panoramas of staggering scale
Extremely lush valleys dominated by distinctive, single-peak, snow-packed mountains
Glacial fields
Relatively pristine and untouched compared to other parks
Fire lookout towers that you can camp/sleep in
So many beautiful a-frame cabins in the woods
Hot tubbing at night
Cloud inversions
Fog, moss, ferns, stars
Chopping wood for wood-burning stoves
Pretty much guaranteed snow on the peaks year-round (barring climate change…) If you love the look of snowy peaks but don’t want to elope in winter, here you go
Also good: Anywhere in Colorado, the Tetons, Lake Tahoe, Glacier
September: Glacier NP
Glacier’s like a slice of Colorado, Washington, and the Canadian Rockies combined. I know we just said that the Cascades have the best mountains, but really it could be Glacier. In September we start to see fall colors and cooling temps. Crowds have dissipated after peak season, wildlife is out and about feeding before winter, birds are migrating, waterfalls are still flowing. This time of year we’re hopefully post-wildfire season, which means skies should be clear of smoke(?).
Glacier brings to mind:
Jagged peaks, water, wildflowers – but there’s consistent sun and the air is relatively dry
Simply incredible hiking
Combines the remote mountains and abundant water of Washington with the climate and vegetation of Colorado
Alpine lakes with icebergs and wildflowers
Moose and deer and other critters aplenty
Waterfalls, beautiful blue water and stones along the shore
Mountain roads with VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS
Kayaking, paddleboarding and canoeing to remember
Glacier lies on the US/Canadian border and definitely has Banff vibes
Also good: Colorado, Tetons, Redwoods
October: Central CO (Crested Butte, Buena Vista, Breckenridge, Aspen)
As soon as October 1st rolls around, there’s nowhere we’d rather be than right here in Colorado.
If you’re like us and love you some good sweater weather, October in these parts of Colorado is really the best. Post summer crowds, pre-ski crowds and snow, right in the heart of fall colors and great hiking (and hot-tubbing) weather. This part of Colorado is our favorite, and this is the best time to be here!
Fall leaves against brilliant blue skies! This should be on everyone’s CO bucketlist
Insane wildflowers
Famous for skiing in winter, so the peaks are accessible with gondolas and lifts. Town infrastructure is good and major mountain roads remain cleared
Fall breezes rustling aspen leaves (T R A N Q U I L)
Getting coffee on a crisp morning overlooking peaks in town
Hot tub soaks in the evening
Fire place cozying
Snow dusted peaks
Lodging ranges from tent camping, A-frame cabins, all the way up to full-on luxury hotels
Also good: Moab, Zion, Big Bend, Sand Dunes (aka go to the desert)
November: Sedona
Sedona’s kinda cursed — it’s a spot with abundant access to incredible natural scenery but has the infrastructure that might have been sufficient for tourism 30 years ago. In peak season Sedona gets absolutely as choked with traffic and visitors as the busiest National Park you’ve ever been to on a holiday weekend. We’re talking hours to go a mile or two through town by car. Also it’s infuriatingly hot.
So yeah, we generally take a huuuuge pass on the summer months and visit instead in the fall/winter season when the temps and crowds are both so much more comfortable. Not sparse, but manageable.
Sedona to us:
Beautiful red rock formations surrounding a posh desert town
Amazing sense of scale
The perfect place to have a memorable, epic, approachable hiking experience
Beautiful desert sunsets
Canyons (with helicopter tours)
Awesome for Jeeping and off-roading — you can drive OHVs through town and right onto trails
Deer, javelinas, yucca
Great food and music
Super charming Airbnbs
People love their vortexes out here
Also good: Moab, Zion, Joshua Tree, Big Bend, Death Valley, Sand Dunes NP (THE DESERT)
December: Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree, both the town and National Park, are incredibly chill. The town is hip and charming, with great art and coffee and food and Airbnbs. Total vibe. The National Park isn’t what we’d call epic but it is stunning, in its own desolate, subtle, quiet vastness. The namesake trees are whimsical and beautiful.
Winter, spring, and fall all bring comfortable daytime temps and chilly to very cold nights, along with far more privacy than you’ll get peak season. Skip the summer months if you can!
Relaxed pace
Perfect for reflection, solitude
Expansive desert views
Dusty, arid, cacti
Desert hikes to shockingly lush desert oases with huge palm trees
Enormous boulder fields and rock structures to explore and scamper around
Incredible rock climbing opportunities for people of all levels
Desert birds! Lizards! Snakes!
Starry skies
Also good: Colorado, Moab, Zion, Joshua Tree, Big Bend, Death Valley
The next step:
You made it this far!
Hopefully this guide gets some wheels turning on planning your elopement with us, or at least inspires some travel to these areas. We’re really grateful to be able to visit these areas regularly and love sharing our experience with folks looking to do the same.
If you’d like to chat about eloping in any of these amazing places (or others!), click that button below ❤️
