I camped for the night at the dry campsite behind the George Patton Museum in Chiriaco Summit, the same place I've been twice before. This campsite is a godsend for me, as it's quiet, near food and water, and a remote enough place to walk my dogs in peace. The views from the campsite are high enough to see the interstate and the lights of the cars snaking up and down the canyon floor.
This time I actually visited the national park just north of there, but that was unplanned. I also had a full moon setting soon. Little did I realize that the dirt road off the campsite that I've taken the dogs on before for short walks goes straight north into the park wilderness. This dirt road also crosses two other east-west dirt roads that go outside the park boundary.
I was up before sunrise to hike in the cool air. The park boundary is less than a mile from the campsite, but I couldn't explore the park since I had the dogs. I did get to see the sun rise and cast the golden hue over the hillside; that was quite beautiful. There are no Joshua trees here, but there are plenty of big cholla!
I walked along a maintenance road that bordered the park along the southside. I packed in three miles and an hour after sunrise I could feel the heat. It turns out that that maintenance road, had I stayed on it, would have taken me straight to Cottonwood Canyon road, which is the south entrance to the park. The park was not on my itinerary, but the wildflowers were calling me.
And oh my, the wildflowers were out in abundance! There were so many people camped outside the park in dispersed sites, and many were from photographers walking the Bajada nature trail at the main gate. I stopped along the main road and kept the AC running to keep the dogs cool. The desert was so fragrant here! The flowers made this area quite nice, because otherwise the naked, cragged hills wouldn't offer much.
I even saw a desert tortoise off the road.
Once I got into the park, though, the flowers disappeared and the open basin came in. It's a vastly different terrain from the south side. This terrain would be brutal in the summer, as it's a low elevation ancient creekbed. More cholla and lots of pulloffs for photography.
The big granite rocks appear in the center of the park and with them are the short hiking trails in and around these boulders. Lots of campsites and trailheads. This would be a nice area to explore in the winter, but the exposed hills would tire me out. It was 77F at 10am and felt warmer. When I exited the park at noon it was 83F and now I had to backtrack back to my original plan to Big Bear Lake, another 1.5 hours away which required me to drive on I-10W. Traffic wasn't too bad and there was no slow-go this time. I made it to CA38 by 3pm. I stopped at a ranger station, got a few maps and some advice from the ranger, and off I was. The heavy rains that California got here in the last month have really greened the hillsides up.
The dogs enjoyed the cooler air here. I took them to Snow Creek off the Valley of the Falls, but the waterfall trail was closed due to snow and ice (although many people ignored the sign and walked up anyway). I hiked the creek in the opposite direction, only to end up on private property. Ooops. It was a three-mile hike that felt like six because of all the rock hopping I did along the creek, which recently saw some serious mudslides along the creek.
It's an area I'd come back to explore more, but I wanted to get to Big Bear Lake before it got too dark. CA38 meandered up the range, with mudslide warnings posted precariously at every curve. Iced snow still hung off the cliffs against the road. The snow from last month is melting, but the soft terrain is still dangerous.
CA38 is a designated Scenic highway and deserves the recognition. I was driving 45mph and drivers were passing me. It's nice to see the hillsides green again! Big Bear Lake is 45 miles from Valley of the Falls and it took me two hours. I could see the town in the valley below as I crested Onyx Pass (8443'). Big Bear was still 15 miles away! The Pacific Crest Trail also passes near here. The terrain now is alpine, with pines and junipers lining the road. It was in the 60s and I was quite comfortable in a light windbreaker.
I finally made it to Big Bear City at 7pm. "City" is a misnomer; it's more of a quiet community next to the larger Big Bear Lake Resort Village where all the chain fastfood restaurants are. I stopped in a small roadside Broadway Cafe diner, where I chatted with the owners Chuck and Brenda who gave me good advice about where to hike and camp for the night. When the place closed at 8pm they let me stay for as long as I wanted. It was a nice intro to the town.
Big Bear Lake is ten miles long, with the businesses on the south side of the lake and upscale cabins and rentals on the north side. It's a four-season resort for skiing and hiking. I drove around to get a feel for the town and ended up boondocking off CA18 11 miles south of town in lower elevation where the night time temperature was a pleasant 50F. The only complaint was that CDOT's maintenance vehicles came through several times to clear the road of fallen rocks. Rockslides are indeed happening, although the rocks were luckily little ones that wouldn't stop traffic.
More later.
No comments:
Post a Comment