Late Fall and Early Winter at Big Bear Lake

by Loren · January 19, 2025

Toward the end of 2024 I had the opportunity to spend about seven weeks at Big Bear Lake. The town of Big Bear Lake is in the San Bernardino Mountains of California. There is also a large reservoir named Big Bear Lake which has a surface elevation of 6,743 feet above sea level. While I have made quite a few short visits to Big Bear Lake the longer stay allowed me to explore new areas in the valley Big Bear Lake is located as well as revisit places I had been to before.

My stay started at the end of October and went through a little past mid December. When I arrived there was some fall color as seen in the foreground bushes and more faintly in the deciduous trees on the other side of Big Bear Lake. The boat docks are part of Boulder Bay which is near the small vacation cabin I stayed in.

There were also some brightly colored trees.

On the north side of Big Bear Lake there is the short 1.5 mile Woodland Trail which is a nature trail with interpretive signs. These colorful trees are California Black Oaks.

A lone California Black Oak with evergreen trees on both sides.

On the eastern side of Big Bear Lake town near the area of Sugerloaf are the Maple Hill Trails. I have avoided these trails in the past because during the warmer seasons they are very popular with trail bikes. However November is off season and I was able to explore the trails only encountering several bikers. The trails go through sparsely wooded areas with some open spaces.

Viewed from one of the Maple Hill Trails this area of the valley is Baldwin Lake which is a natural shallow lake bed that is normally dry. Some years with heavy rains the lake will have some water which usually does not last long.

More of Baldwin Lake is to the right of the previous picture. The houses on the far side are the small community of Baldwin Lake.

These hills form Gold Mountain named for the nearby gold mining which began in the 1850’s. In 1875 one of the mining operations was set up on one side of this mountain. The ore was of low quality and the mine was shut down after eight months. Another mining attempt was started in 1899 which managed to turn a small profit but ceased operations in 1903.

To the east of the town of Big Bear Lake is Big Bear City and these are some of the hills behind it.

On the other side of the peninsula from Boulder Bay is Metcalf Bay. If you look closely above the pointy evergreen tree there is an almost full moon.

Looking north at Metcaf Bay are of a bunch of ducks in the water. On the other side of the lake the small white building is the Big Bear Solar Observatory. It is a university-based solar observatory operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology.

This is near the center of Big Bear Lake town looking west toward the Big Bear Lake Dam. The land jutting out in the lake is the opposite side of the peninsula from Metcalf Bay.

On the third weekend in November there was a snow storm which left several inches of snow. This is Metcalf Bay which if you zoom in near the center of the picture there are four White Pelicans.

This is to the right where on the far shore are boats which have blue covers.

On a different day the scene was topped with clouds.

These boulders in Boulder Bay were capped with snow.

A view of Boulder Bay looking westerly.

The slopes of the Snow Summit ski area viewed from north shore of Big Bear Lake. Most of the snow is man made. To the left a little of the Bear Mountain ski slopes can be seen.

The lake and mountains to the left of the ski areas.

This time of year a lot of the shrubs are yellow/brown which give the views a different feeling.

So far the pictures have been sunny with blue sky. However there were also cloudy periods like this one with menacing clouds.

I took walks in some of the residential areas to look at the houses most of which are different from each other, some small.

Some more typical house size.

And some the size of mansions like this one with an interesting round turret.

There are camps where children or families come to enjoy the area. This one is closed for the winter.

These are several buildings remaining from the Tamarack Lodge camp which opened in 1929 and operated until 1969. The cabins housed girls ages 6 thru 20 and had 21 staff members. The summer visitors could experience a taste of life in the mountains.

The cabin I stayed at had a bird feeder which was visited by two types of birds. The bigger birds were Stellar Jays which just were at the feeder occasionally and I only got pictures from behind. The smaller birds were Darkeyed Juncos which were frequent visitors.

There were also furry visitors like this ground squirrel.

Another one scurrying away.

A late afternoon picture during one of the last days of my stay at Big Bear Lake. I found the time there to be relaxing and enjoyed the things I was able to do there.