Hanging Rock in the Clouds

Holly and I had this great idea where we were going to get up ridiculously early on a Saturday morning, drive the 45+ minutes to Monroe County, hike a mile up a mountain, and catch a sunrise and fog rising out of the valley from the Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory.  This was an awesome idea for really cool photos.  But sadly, the weather did not cooperate.  It was rainy Friday night, but we decided to take our chances anyway, because it's not exactly easy to schedule such a trip, and we knew if we didn't make it this weekend, it wouldn't happen.  So we stuck with our plan and headed out at 6 AM on Saturday even though it was really cloudy and slightly rainy.  We didn't quite make it to the top of the mountain before sunrise, but it didn't matter because there was no sun.  We saw fog in the valleys during our drive, but the top of the mountain was so high up in the clouds, we couldn't see down into the valleys.  So mostly, the trip was a bust.  I got a few ok photos, but nothing too spectacular.  And nothing like what I had been hoping for. And then it started raining and we had to hike back down the mountain in a cold miserable rain.  No fun at all.  I doubt the weather will cooperate for a fog-rising sunrise again this year, but maybe next year I will be able to try again on a perfect-conditions day.