Big Bear Lake from Castle Rock

After a leisurely breakfast and a few trips back and forth along Big Bear Boulevard to collect forgotten maps we eventually found the beginning of the Castle Rock Trail.

The weather was cold but bright and the sky a magnificant deep blue as we began the ascent to Castle Rock. Despite the altitude - over 7000 feet - an easy walk although we did see people who found it rather more strenuous judging by the perspiration on their foreheads!

This was a magnificant walk to Castle Rock, amongst massive pines and enourmous jumbles of eroded granite, all set against a brilliant blue sky.

The view from Castle Rock, didn't disappoint as you can see. However, getting the exposure right for the very light granite, the green trees, water and strong sunlight was a challenge and a lot of photos tended to be slightly overexposed (and this camera doesn't save RAW images)

Later on we went to look for a couple of other trails which we duly found - with some difficulty. The Champion Lodgepole Pine trail is very short but at the end of a half hour drive up along dirt roads, something which we wondered was a good thing in a hire car. But all passed well, we found the trail and the tree and it was magnificant. We then completed another smaller trail - the Bluff Mesa - before returning to the car and negotiating the long descent down the dirt rosd.

A final trail took us the wrong way around and interpretative woodland walk without the guide, but more about that later.

Back to the cabin for a super supper courtesy of Von's, ready for tomorrow.