Orange County engagement photography can be done in so many locations. However, if you are looking for something different than Orange County’s urban scene or the coastline beaches, then take advantage of the many wilderness parks the county has to offer. Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park Engagement Photos in Trabuco Canyon by Three16 Photography will add some truly beautiful nature to your engagement photos. It’s one of our favorite places in Orange County.

It’s an amazing park with so many features for your Orange County engagement photos. Whiting Ranch is located just a couple of miles to the northeast of Saddleback Church and includes 2,500 acres large with 23 hiking trails that equate to 17 miles worth of trees and hills for our engagement shoot. Whiting Ranch includes woodland canyons, amazing rock formations, grassland hills and since it use to be a cattle ranch, you will still see some remnants of it. If you go in the right direction, we will end up in Red Rock Canyon as the two locations connect with one another.

Some of the reasons we love shooting photography here is that it is a great location to capture the sunset in your photos. At the right time, the sunset will hit the hills at such an angle that makes the background in your photos pop and come to life. Simply beautiful! In addition to the sunset, Whiting Ranch has a tremendous mixture of trees and cactus as you walk along the trails. Just gives us different options and hopefully it will be to your liking.

There are also three riverbeds that we can incorporate into your photos. If we go after the rainy season, the bed will have some running water. However, if it is any other time of the year, we won’t have any water, but the rocks in the riverbed bring really great character to your photos.

If you opt for Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park engagement photos, there are some things to take into consideration. To get to any of the better photo locations, we will have to go on small hikes along the trails and we recommend that the photo shoot take place on weekdays, because on the weekends this park can get quite crowded with mountain bikers taking over the trails. Also, one point that is really important to know, this park does not allow you to bring animals to it. So, if you were thinking it would be fun to include your dogs, this is not the place to bring them.

So, if you are considering a nature-style park for your engagement photos, consider Whiting Ranch as it is one beautiful location. There are two points of entry. One from Lake Forest and the other is Santiago Canyon Road.

You can learn more about the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park as your engagement location by visiting ocparks.com/parks/whiting.

Some locations are subject to permit and/or travel fees.