A tour along the “Rim of the World”

Simply a beautiful day here in the desert, and we were off at 9:30 this morning in our trusty Jeep heading for the “Rim of the World”.  That is what they call the highway leading up to Big Bear Lake!

We tried to climb up by Hwy. 330, however it was closed with a road block.  I guess there has been a lot of rain, and probably they are doing repairs.  So we headed a little further north and picked up Hwy. 18 which goes right into Big Bear City. 

This is only a couple of thousand feet up, but things are looking good!

At about 4,500 feet, oooppss… here comes the white stuff…

Some great shots as you climb up to Big Bear.

Some great shots along the way up, at this nice little turn out…

The turn out above was a make work project… check it out!

We made a pit stop in Running Springs, and check out the chains on the back hoe!  

We came across a small ski hill on the way up, past Running Springs…

Check this out, we are starting to get into serious stuff here…

There is quite a snow load above 7,000 feet…

All the roads were bare thankfully, so the Jeep had no problem at all… just got real dirty… that is a job for tomorrow…

Simply love the San Gorgonio Mountains…

Lots of snow, but it was close to 50 degrees F. so all was well… the snow was melting in many spots.

Seems I am up to my knees in the white stuff… I was talking on the phone the other day, and my son the Dr., was asking me why we come to California and end up going to where the snow is??? Hmmmm… not sure.

Finally, we hit Big Bear Lake… it is beautiful.  Just a wee bit of ice on it today.  It is a few miles long. 

Some real nice real estate on the far side of the lake.

This is the ski lodge that John and Pat will stay at later this month when they fly in.  It is real nice, and right where all the action is taking place.

This one is for you John, this building is right across the road from the Lodge where you are staying!  Perfect!

Big Bear has a quaint village, and all the shopping you can handle… yes Rick, Judy even found a quilt shop!

There are two large ski hills on the east side of the Town.

Check out the back tires on this car… lots of these around, and everyone in Town sells them!

Now the fun begins.  After we left Big Bear, our intention was to head home.  I thought that we could take an alternate route back along the Rim of the World Highway, #38.  It is a terrific Highway, very scenic, and lots of camping for the summer time. 

Came across this tree, and have no idea what kind it is…  Any guesses????

While at the above tree, I was checking out my Magellan GPS, and check out the elevation number of 8,358 feet!  Yikes…

Anyways, as we headed out on #38, we got to within 10 miles of the bottom and the road was blocked again!  We received word that there was a 3 vehicle accident on the road and it would be blocked for over 5 hours!  The only thing we could do was to climb back up, and come back out the Hwy. 18 that we took in.   This added about an hour and a half to our trip. 

It was a fantastic day, which I really enjoyed.  John and Pat will enjoy Big Bear I am sure! 

Till tomorrow…