Big Bear is about Bears

Our Lake Arrowhead weekend started on Thursday and on Friday morning we decided it would be fun to go up to Big Bear Lake which is around 30 miles of winding road from Lake Arrowhead. We had not been up to Big Bear since before the real estate market tumble and were surprised to see Open House and For Sale signs on almost every mountain road around the lake. If you are looking for a mountain cabin, now is probably a great time to buy either in Big Bear or Lake Arrowhead!

It is said that Big Bear Valley first inhabitants were the Serrano Indians over 3,000 years ago. In 1845 Benjamin Wilson discovered and named it Bear Valley because, "The place was alive with bears!" In 1860 William Holcomb was hunting bear and discovered gold instead and what followed was California's Gold Rush. Here is a link with the history of Big Bear Valley.

As we headed up to Big Bear we decided we would make this trip in search of bears and here are a few that we found along the way....

We saw an "official" Big Bear welcome!

We saw Boo Bear's Den.... a great place to eat in the village of Big Bear!

We saw bears visiting bears in Big Bear!

We saw bears peeking into store windows...

We saw a baby bear looking for Mama bear at a store...

Our daughter with a lil' bear... well, actually a Pomeranian puppy that they were selling at the street corner.

And we saw the backside of a bear saying bye to us when we left...

Big Bear Lake... a great place to see bears!