Trip to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake

The first big road trip this year took us to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake in the mountains of Southern California.

And it was a good one!

Our dear friends Jeff and Sue live at Lake Arrowhead so we booked a room at Lake Arrowhead Resort right down the street and enjoyed a wonderful couple of days.

The trip from Phoenix is only five hours, so if you don’t mind driving through 100⁰+ desert, it isn’t too bad.

And five hours compared to the long road trips we took cross country and to Kansas seems like a snap.

The mile-high altitude meant the weather was picture perfect and it was a nice break from the hot days now beginning in Arizona.

Lake Arrowhead Resort

The resort and spa is reasonably priced (at least for the week nights we stayed) and was lovely.  There is beach access, a pool, hot tubs, lots of family activities and a gorgeous spa and workout room.  No, I didn’t get a chance to work out.  Darn.

The lobby is full of photos of all the movies stars over the years who have filmed or played in the area. Each picture has information about the connection to the area and information about the celebrity. It was fun looking at the old pictures of what I imagine were the glory days of Hollywood.

Breakfast on the resort patio for me was a brioche sandwich with egg, bacon, tomato and greens.  It was so good and the cutest thing was the arrowhead brand on the roll.

Big Bear Lake

Big Bear Lake is much, much larger than Arrowhead and about a 30-minute drive away.   And it is where Jeff keeps his boat.  He toured us around the entire lake and we stopped for delicious snacks they brought.

Sue and I could not tame our hair enough to get a decent picture, but you can see we were having fun.

Town Centers

The town center for Lake Arrowhead is built like Swiss chalets.  It’s charming and Jeff treated us to breakfast at the Belgian waffle restaurant.

The town center at Big Bear is several blocks long and was pretty busy with tourists by the time we got there for dinner after our boat ride.

I don’t think most of the communities in Arrowhead allow for short-term rentals, so there were people vacationing in their second homes visiting from Southern California towns.  The homes and condos are spectacular.

Most of the yards and the surrounding grounds are in full summer glory.  Lush grass, pine and deciduous trees, shrubs, and more roses and flowers than I could count.

I’m going to do a separate post on landscaping, but for now take my word for it, I was in outdoor heaven.

Big Bear does allow for short-term home rentals so there were a lot of vacationing families with kids enjoying the mountains and swimming and boating in the lake.

The town and the lake sit at a higher elevation and the snow in the surrounding ski areas had not totally melted.  So with my brilliant detective skills, I deduced that the lake water might be a bit too cold for my taste.  I did not even dip my toes in.

Wrap Up

It was such a wonderful trip with friends who have been in our lives for a very long time.  The added benefit of morning and evening goosebumps was icing on the cake.

They get way too much snow for my liking in the winter, but I hope we get to visit them for many summers to come.

Thank you for riding along with us and let us know what your summer plans include.