big bear

As a kid born and raised in Southern California, the idea of autumn leaves and winter snow were novelties. Though just a three-hour drive from my family’s town, the wooded San Bernardino Mountains felt like another world, so much so that when a mountain guide once asked 10-year-old me where I was from, I told him “California,” as if we’d left the state entirely.

Cascading ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees sweep the Transverse Ranges toward Big Bear Lake, which sits in a valley that the Indigenous Yuhaaviatam called Yuhaaviat, Place of the Pines. Big Bear’s tourism story starts in the 1860s, when a short-lived gold rush in Holcomb Valley left behind roads, cabins and a frontier myth that later drew tourists. In 1884, a dam built for irrigation flooded the valley and created the alpine lake that still defines the region.

Angelenos have been making the drive to Big Bear for more than a century, chasing cooler air in summer and snow in winter. As early as 1912, day-trippers and film crews in Model-Ts wound up the mountain roads, using Big Bear’s forests as both a quick escape and a Hollywood back lot.

By the 1920s Pine Knot, now known as Big Bear Village, was filled with lodges and storefronts to greet Los Angeles motorists escaping summer heat. The region’s first ski lift arrived in 1938, while post-World War II highways, film shoots, and the Hollywood set turned the once-remote valley into a four-season resort through the 1960s. To this day, Big Bear maintains its small-town feel with a population of just 5,000 even though it sees more than 7 million visitors a year.

For my parents, who loved to ski, Big Bear was more affordable and closer than Tahoe (meaning less time in the car with two squirmy kids) and had just enough amenities to keep us warm, fed and happy. Over the years, locals have held tight to its character, resisting abject luxury development while defending the habitats of local wildlife. Thanks to those efforts, the place still carries a bit of Howard Johnson-era Americana charm.

Whether traveling solo or with friends and family, a weekend in Big Bear makes for a quaint but restorative winter getaway, whether or not you hit the slopes. Pack your sweaters and boots and be careful taking the curves of Highway 18.