Big Bear & the Mountains: The Alpine Escape

One of the strange pleasures of the high desert is how close the alpine is. In about an hour and a half you can drive from Joshua trees and cactus to a pine-ringed mountain lake at 6,750 feet — snow in winter, cool water in summer. Big Bear is the desert's opposite, and an easy day trip when you want a change of temperature.

The drive is the event

From Yucca Valley the usual route runs out Highway 247 (Old Woman Springs Road) across open desert to the foot of the mountains, then climbs Highway 18 up a dramatic grade — roughly a thousand feet of desert floor to nearly seven thousand feet of forest in about half an hour of switchbacks. It's around 64 miles and, traffic permitting, about an hour and a quarter. In winter, check conditions first: mountain highways can require chains, and storms close them.

Summer up top

When the desert is baking, Big Bear is shirtsleeve weather. The lake is the draw — rent a boat or a paddleboard, fish, or just picnic on the shore. There's hiking in the San Bernardino National Forest, a scenic chairlift, and a walkable village of shops and restaurants near the water.

Winter snow

From roughly December through March, Big Bear is Southern California's snow. Two linked resorts — Snow Summit and Bear Mountain — run downhill skiing and snowboarding, with the top lift climbing above 8,000 feet. Even if you don't ski, the novelty of building a snowman in the morning and sitting by the fire pit in the desert that night is hard to beat.

Before you go

Leave early, especially on winter weekends when the mountain fills up. Carry water for the desert crossing and a warm layer for the top — it can be forty degrees colder at the lake than at the house. Fill the tank in Yucca Valley, since services thin out on the 247. Then enjoy the whiplash: cactus at breakfast, pine forest by lunch, desert stars by night.