Let me take a moment and talk about this gorgeous sunset engagement session I had the pleasure of taking up at Angeles National Forest. Angeles Crest is always covered with incredible views, that never ceases to surprise me each time. I have taken multiple Los Angeles forest engagement and elopements before. This forest has the mountain slopes, lush green forest, and even snow during winter months! It’s incredible to know that this is only 20 or so minutes from downtown LA.

Given the gorgeous photos, it’s hard to believe that the day actually did not start off very well. As I was making my way to the meet up spot, I noticed smoke coming up the mountain. San Gabriel Mountain was actually on fire, but it did look more south than the Angeles Crest. With precautions in mind Corina, Matt and I decided to go up anyway to see if we can still capture the mountain engagement.

The Story of Los Angeles Forest Engagement

As we reached towards Mt. Wilson, we were met with a road closure due to a landslide. Unfortunate, but it happens. Bummed we could not make it to the forest area unless we made a 30min detour, we decided to go up Mt Wilson side as we were trying to make sunset. However, this bump in the road only happened to be a beginning of the perfect forest engagement session.

I remembered that there was a hike route in this Los Angeles Forest near Mt Wilson I always wanted to take photos. The hike route overlooks an incredible view as you can see below, but the sun happened to be a little too high at the time of our arrival. As we got out of our car in a hiking spot entrance, I noticed a CHP officer came up in his bike. Not thinking too much, we decided to take photos near the parking area to wait for the sun to go down.

As we took some photos, the CHP officer asked us if we were planning on walking down the trail. Unfortunately he informed us that the trail was closed due to the fire! He was there to stop hikers from going in, and hikers coming out of the trail to get out. Seriously, it felt like a photographer’s worst nightmare! But forest fires are no joke, and we all agreed that we will just need to make best of the situation. Corina and Matt are avid hikers, and they were also so understanding of the situation which I am so appreciative of.

Turning Point of Mountain Engagement

However – after a bit more photos near the parking area, the officer asked us how far we were planning to go. After mentioning I only planned to be no more than 20ft into the trail, he gave us the okay! He was so incredibly nice, and I cannot thank him ENOUGH. Because seriously LOOK at the photos! This Los Angeles Forest engagement session would not have been the same without him. So thank you, from the bottom of this local photographer to Altadena CHP.

After promising to be within his eye and ear shot, we walked in for the photos. Now – I think this is enough talking, more photos! Seriously, this is a mountain engagement I will not forget.

See my other Angeles Forest Engagement/Elopement sessions!
–Gill & Lewis elopement
–Golden Hour engagement
-Snow Photoshoot

PS:
Corina and Matt actually got married last Friday, and I cannot wait to share those photos too! Thank you for reading!