Stone Mountain State Park Engagement Session

Stone Mountain State Park may be one of the most unique natural areas for engagement sessions on the east coast. Its prominent feature is a huge dome of natural granite — like the Yosemite of North Carolina. As a result, Stone Mountain State Park features some of the best rock climbing in North Carolina. But if rock climbing isn’t your thing, the hiking there is absolutely spectacular as well.

Wolf Rock Trail at Stone Mountain

For Aylish and Dave’s engagement session, we opted for the Wolf Rock Trail. It’s only 2.5 miles round trip, but the summit makes you feel like you are on an entirely different planet.

It’s a space as big as two football fields of gently sloping granite with mountain views in the background. Basically, you have as much space as you need to get away from other visitors and still have plenty of room to move around.

The hike up is moderate — you switch back and forth for about a mile and a quarter and then, you’re done!
Most people of average fitness could this hike.

It’s also a less popular hike than the Stone Mountain Trail but has equally spectacular views. Even though we visited on a Saturday morning, we had this massive space all to ourselves. It was incredible!

Mountain Proposal

A few weeks before their session, Aylish reached out and asked if she could propose to Dave during it. He had already proposed to her, but she wanted to reciprocate. While he was in the trailhead bathroom she showed me the band she had picked out.
Her skirt has pockets so she slipped it inside one of them before the hike and we continued on our way.

After a few shots, I asked Dave to turn away from us and Aylish would come up behind him and give him a hug. When he turned around she looked at me and mouthed “now?” I gave her a thumbs up.

When he turned around again she was on one knee. He knew it was coming someday, but was completely surprised it was today because she had told him it wouldn’t be today. She said she figured the white lie was ok for the surprise.

Afterward they were giddy and joyful and we just laughed and played the rest of the session.

North Carolina State Park Engagement Photos

For most of my career I’ve photographed the majority of my engagement sessions in Shenandoah National Park. But since moving to southwestern Virginia, I’m working a lot more in state parks and natural areas.

And I’m learning the rules are actually different for state parks vs. national parks.

Here’s what you need to know if you want to have your engagement photos at Stone Mountain.

• You will need a photo permit. Permits are $45 and the application must be submitted 15 days before the shoot. You can find that application here.
• Most NC state parks aren’t open 24/7. The parks open at 7 or 8am and close at different times depending on the time of year. For instance at Stone Mountain, the park closes at 6pm November to February. March to April it closes at 8. May to August it closes at 9 and September to October it goes back to 8. As someone who plans most shoots around sunrise or sunset that makes things a little tricky. Sunrise is pretty much out unless you are interested in a mid-winter shoot. But sunset is fair game depending on the time of year!
• The good news is the summits at some of the North Carolina’s State Park hikes are so big that even if there are other visitors around, it’s easy to move away from them and have a little pocket of privacy.