Red River Gorge Hiking Engagement Session at Cloud Splitter

Our good friends Landon and Sara wanted to do their engagement session in the Red River Gorge. It was the perfect place to celebrate their love story. Landon and Sara love the outdoors and adventure. So they wanted to go for a hike on one of their favorite trails with their sweet dog Kaizer. They took us on a hike that we had never been on before called Cloud Splitter. On the way to the trail we stopped at the epic Nada Tunnel. It’s a one-car tunnel that leads to some of the prettiest rock climbing and hiking trails in the gorge. As we hiked up to Cloud Splitter we could tell right away it would be a fun adventure. We hiked up a steep incline until we arrived at the rock face that leads up to Cloud Splitter. We had to scale the rock wall with a rope. When we reached the top of the wall we could see a panoramic view of the surrounding valleys, mountains, forest, and river. It was truly a stunning sight. Their dog Kaizer even scaled the wall. We spent the evening capturing the sweet love between Landon and Sara and of course Kaizer. Kaizer is the real mvp of Landon and Sara’s love story. If it wasn’t for him they may have never met.

Several summers ago Sara was doing an internship at a clinic in Tennessee. Sara had Memorial Day weekend off and planned to visit some of her vet school friends in Lexington, Kentucky. One of them happened to be Landon’s sister, Hillary. One night they went to Landon’s house to watch a movie, Wreck it Ralph. Sara was instantly drawn to Landon’s adorable Border Collie, Kaizer but didn’t interact much with Landon that night. The following day Sara went on her first hike in the Red River Gorge with Hillary and Landon’s friends. Landon helped Sara at several tricky parts of the hike since Landon was an expert rock climber. They had a great day of hiking and ended the night with an awkward goodbye. Four months later Landon planned a trip to Auburn to “visit” his sister Hilary. They had a weekend full of hiking plans and Sara crashed every minute of their family time. Landon asked if he could have Sara’s number so that he could send her pictures of Kaizer. He had quickly learned the way to Sara’s heart. Landon returned and a week had passed. Sara worked up the courage to start a conversation by asking a question about Kaizer. They began to talk more and Landon eventually asked Sara if he could drive down to Auburn in the future and take Sara out on a date. Two months later Landon came down to Auburn and took Sara out on a date to the Georgia Aquarium. Sara was mesmerized as she sat next to the gigantic viewing window with Landon watching the whale sharks, sea turtles, and thousands of fish swimming around them. They could have stayed there together all day. Afterward, they went to a sports bar in Atlanta before Landon had to drive back to Kentucky.

Landon and Sara began to date long distance until Sara moved to a small town outside of Lexington to work in a vet clinic. Landon knew that he wanted to propose to Sara and spend the rest of his life with her. He decided the weekend before Thanksgiving while they were visiting Sara’s family in Florida. He knew that it would be the perfect time. It is a tradition for Sara’s family to walk on the beach after their Thanksgiving meal. They had their meal on Sunday and then went for an evening walk on Sara’s favorite beach. They started to walk along the shoreline when Landon started to pull Sara away from her family. Landon then dropped to one knee. As he went down a wave soaked him. It was worth it because Sara, of course, said yes! Sara’s friends and family were close by to celebrate with champagne. The beach had always been Sara’s happy place and now it has become even more special. We are so excited to capture their wedding day love story this fall at Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, KY. Landon’s wingman Kaizer will be there to celebrate as these two sweethearts get married!