As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have quit social media. So, I’m trying to figure out what to do with pictures that I take. I’m going to experiment with posting shorter, more casual posts about fun stuff I get up to, starting now!
So on our first day being fully vaccinated (2 weeks after our second doses) back in late March 2021, we ventured out into the world! We drove up to Big Bear for the day. We still wore masks and socially distanced, but it was nice to not feel as nervous about catching and spreading COVID!
Big Bear is only a couple of hours away from San Diego, so it wasn’t that bad of a drive. We did stop a lot on the way, including at this amazing viewpoint. You can see a snow-topped mountain in the distance and a bit of the smoggy suburban sprawl of the greater Los Angeles area. It was also so green (at least for Southern California)!
Our first real stop was at Lake Arrowhead. We decided to check it out, since it was only a small detour. I’m so glad we did! It was like a more calm and accessible version of Big Bear. There was less traffic and more places to actually access the lake. So we found a little spot to have a snack by the lake.
We then went to Big Bear. Like I said, it was kind of hard to access the lake, since we weren’t renting a house on the lake. We also had trouble finding a hike with an accessible trailhead (with parking), especially since it was Saturday afternoon.
So we wandered around a bit and got lunch before heading back. We decided to take the scenic route home, where we wound through San Bernadino National Forest. We passed so many campsites, so we’re hoping to go back and hang out for a longer period of time. And that was the end of post-vaccine adventure number one!
On our second weekend post-vaccine, we planned two back-to-back activities. On Saturday we drove up to Joshua Tree National Park for the day and on Sunday we woke up early and went on a 7-mile hike at Iron Mountain. We drove most of the way there and then made a quick stop in Pioneertown, which is a ghost town/wild west road side attraction/old film set.
Then we stopped at this really cute vegan cafe in town on our way into the park. After lunch we finally made it into the park. We basically drove through the whole park from the north entrance to the south entrance, pulling over and getting out to check out the different areas.
I’ve been to Joshua Tree several times now, but it’s still just so cool and different. This time we managed to go on a hike. Even though it was early spring, it was already so hot. We did the Hidden Valley trail, which was only about a mile. By the end we were dehydrated and sunburned! After a year not leaving the house, our bodies were a bit shocked by the conditions. But it is such a cool hike.
Then we drove to Keys View to get a big sweeping view of the desert.
We then headed south on our way out of the park. We were headed to the south entrance, so we stopped at the Cholla Cactus Garden, which is an area that has this different kind of cactus than the rest of the park. It feels completely different to an area not that far away.
Our final stop was the Lost Palms Oasis near Cottonwood Campground. I love this area because the palm trees are so, so huge, especially in comparison to everything else in the area.
After that it was time to head back to San Diego. Then the next morning, we woke up bright and early to go to Iron Mountain. We got a bit more of an intense day than we bargained for here, but it was a great hike.
There’s a long approach up to the mountain and then you cross the pass and then slowly climb up the other side of the mountain.
As soon as we got over the pass, the views changed completely and it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, even though if you look the other way you can tell we’re basically still in Poway.
We were really enjoying the spring flowers. I loved the blueish purple flowers in contrast with the bright orange ones.
Summiting was pretty brutal. It felt like we were 50 feet from the top of the mountain for half an hour. But eventually we did make it. By this point the sun was beating down on us and we were pretty hot. We enjoyed the descent, which was obviously less difficult but still long. We did meet a friend – a pretty scary rattlesnake that was actually on the trail! We managed to scoot past without incident, though. And then at the end we appreciated this tree-lined section of path which was pretty much the only part that gave us any respite from the sun.
Finally, after about 7 miles and 1000ft of vertical, we made it back to the car! We rewarded ourselves with a vegan feast at a rooftop cafe/yoga studio in La Jolla called Trilogy. It was really great and we definitely needed a good refuel!
So that’s some of what we got up to earlier this year. I’m going to try to do a couple more posts about some other hikes and excursions we did this spring and summer!
