Mount San Bernardino

Tuesday we left the house by 6:45, arriving at Angelus Oaks and the San Bernardino trailhead in time to be on the trail at 7:45. The temperature at the car was 35. The morning was quite clear, but the mountains were cloud-covered. 

After 10-15 minutes on the trail we were warm. First the trail is in deciduous forest, and within a mile there was a bit of snow on the ground. At Manzanita Flats many of the bushes were ice-covered, and the sun was coming through off and on, making everything sparkly. 

As we moved out of the manzanitas into evergreens, many of the trees were covered with fog snow, and some were iced. A backlit iced evergreen is more beautiful than any Christmas tree I’ve ever seen! 

Gilded

The path is gently sloping the whole way up, other than a half mile of level at Manzanita Flats, so it’s a really comfortable hike. Many of the dead pines are windswept and twisted, making beautiful swirled trunks. 

There was an ever-thicker snow carpet as we climbed, and at times it would crunch as we hiked. The temps fell of course, but we were only cold when we stopped to eat. 
The views were beautiful, but often blocked by clouds; we’ll have to go back for that. We had lovely views of Big Bear Lake, and a couple times we glimpsed the valley.

At the top, we took time for a snack but knew we had no time to spare. It took us 5.5 hours to get up, and 3 to get down, rushing all the way!