Here are some pictures of my camping trip to Big Bear in August of 2001. It was beautiful up there.

We camped off the John Bull Trail on the backside of the mountain. The campsite is at about 7,800' and offers a spectacular view of the desert floor thousands of feet below. There is enough room for 8 or so vehicles and a good size group of people. Here is a partial view of the camp site:

Note the view of the desert in the background.

Walking past the trees reveals a breath-taking view of the desert:

I wish I had a panoramic camera as the view is quite wide. I definitely want to camp at this spot again!

You need a fairly good 4WD vehicle to get to this campsite. Dropping down into the site from the trail is tricky. It is a steep, off-camber descent and it is hard to keep your vehicle from sliding sideways into a big rock just waiting to crunch your truck. Here is a picture of me descending into camp:

Pictures don't do justice, but it is actually quite steep. Fortunately, Danny and Vic did a good job spotting me and helped guide me down past the truck-hungry rock. A couple of yahoo kids, who were part of our group, tried to muscle their full-sized truck out of the campsite and crunched their rear body panel and tail light on this rock.

Here is another view:

Getting back out is difficult if not impossible without a locker.

On Sunday we went up to a fire-lookout post on Butler Peak. The view from up there is awesome! Unfortunately is wasn’t too clear the day we were up there, but the rangers said that on a clear day you can see the ocean and Catalina Island. Here are some pictures (courtesy of Lars Dennert).

The lookout is perched at the very peak.

Looking toward Big Bear Lake:

Looking North-East:

Other pictures from this trip

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