We decided on Hanging Rock as the location for Justin and Sydney’s maternity photos because after having their engagement session at the beach we wanted to be able to incorporate the mountains as well. You might remember that we battled rain for the engagement photos, with a huge downpour that finished just minutes before our photos were set to start. We managed to just escape the rain again for this session as well! It just started to sprinkle as we were walking back to the car. The weather Gods are once again on Sydney’s side 🙂
I had never been to Hanging Rock State Park before and I had been wanting to go check it out, so this was the perfect opportunity! I did a little scouting ahead of time online using All Trails to narrow down some spots that would be good backdrops without being too long of a walk for Sydney. We narrowed it down to Upper Cascade Falls, Lower Cascade Falls, and Wolf Rock as possible choices.
I went out early before the session and hiked the three trails so that we could see which one we wanted to use for the photos. Wolf Rock had great views at the top, but given the heat and the distance it seemed like it would be a little too much. Upper and Lower Cascade Falls were both very pretty. Upper Cascade Falls is a bit smaller but has a neat little ravine leading away from the Falls. We ended up choosing Lower Cascade falls for these Hanging Rock maternity photos because we wanted to have the feel of being in the mountains and the Lower falls really had the drama we were looking for with the large basin at the bottom and the taller waterfall. There were also some other pretty wooded spots on the walk in (which was only about half a mile) and the stairs down to the falls as well.
I can’t wait to meet your darling baby girl 🙂
