I love taking engagement photos on Mount Hood, but the first thing I always tell my couples is that we have to let the mountain lead us. I can’t guarantee clear weather (which we’ll need if you want a Mountain View) so being flexible and having a backup plan is super important. This is the Bald Mountain via Top Spur hike, and it’s one of my absolute favorites for amazing mountain views with a relatively easy and short hike.

In Mallory and Kevin’s case, we weren’t able to do this hike in the fall as we originally planned, so we decided to wait until spring. This trail usually opens up around Memorial Day, but this year we had a really snowy spring with very few warm days that would allow that snow to melt, so we had to wait even longer.  But when we finally did get to go, we all agreed it was 100% worth the wait. We hiked up with garment bags so that they could change once we got to the viewpoint, brought champagne to celebrate, and I brought some lanterns with me so that we could take blue hour photos as the sun was going down. Adding another source of ambient light is huge once it starts to get dark out, so I can’t recommend adding lanterns enough! We hiked down in the dark wearing headlamps, which is absolutely necessary if you’re doing this hike to see the sunset.