Big Bear Lake, Serrano Campground
May 22nd – 25th, 2022 (3 nights)
Big Bear Lake is a beautiful mountain lake (elevation 6,800’) located about three hours from San Diego. The area is great for all season activities. Skiing is very popular at Big Bear’s Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski areas. Spring and summer are the perfect time for a camping trip at the lake as the weather is usually nice. The two main routes to reach Big Bear Lake from Los Angeles and San Diego are going up on CA-330 or CA-38. Highway 330 is quicker by about 30 minutes, but very windy with repeated hair pin turns and more trafficked compared to CA-38. Since we weren’t pressed for time and had our Scamp 13’ in tow, we chose CA-38. We left our home at about 11 a.m. and had a nice leisurely drive up to the campground, arriving around 2 p.m. (check in time) for a late lunch. The CA-38 has some windy sections, but nothing like the CA-330, so we were very glad we took the slow and less direct approach! Note: both our Waze and Google Maps navigators kept trying to reroute us to CA-330 for a while when driving through Redlands. Instead, we ignored the directions to exit on the 77B/CA-210 Foothill Freeway and stayed on the 10 East and exited on Orange Street and then right on E. Lugonia Avenue (which turns into the CA-38). In other words, figure out your directions to use the CA-38 before you leave the house!
Serrano Campground is a beautiful campground set amongst tall pines on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. This side of the lake is not as busy as the south shore where the village with all its shops and restaurants are located. And, Serrano Campground is fairly isolated and private. We noticed when pulling into Serrano Campground that there is a free day use area (Meadows Edge Picnic Area) across the street directly on the lake that will accommodate cars/RVs and offers picnic tables and a nice beach. Meadows Edge seems a perfect spot to have lunch and relax when arriving early before 2 p.m. check in time. There was no line when we drove up to the Serrano Campground Ranger Station check in kiosk. We were given a map, told that no bears had been sighted recently (although campsites have bear boxes), and directed to our campsite (#121). Site #121 (currently $37/night) is in partial shade and has no hookups (although there is a central dump in the campground / currently $10). There is a water spigot directly across from Site #121 (and many sprinkled throughout the campground). From this site, it’s only a short walk to the lake and the Alpine Pedal Path (more on this later) from Site #121. We didn’t get any HDTV signals within our Scamp 13’, but the Verizon cellphone and internet coverage was very good during our stay here.
Although Site #121 is listed within the Lake View section, we found only a few sites actually have a lake view (#115/116, #114, #117). Our top site picks in the Lake View section are #115/116 (double site costing 2x the price of a regular site = currently $74/night), #114, #117, (#118 and #119 if reserving with families or friends as these sites are close together), #120, #121, and #95. The other campground loops have road noise from Hwy 38/North Shore Drive (although not too bad). For those wanting hookups, the Snowberry RV Loop has full hookup sites (currently $47/night). If possible, we recommend the Lake View Loop since it has less road noise. We used our briefcase solar panel system for power and Holy Grail Portable Grey Tank Solution to unload grey water, which allowed us to avoid paying $10 more a night for a full hookup site or using the dump our entire three night stay (despite the two of us taking hot showers every night!).
The wonderful smell of butterscotch and vanilla produced by the pines is reason enough to stay within Serrano Campground! Scientists don’t know why Ponderosa pines smell like cookies baking, but guess the smell may result from a chemical in the sap being warmed by the sun. Morning walks or bike rides along the Alpine Pedal Path (miles of paved bike/walking path along the lake and through the pine forests) are particularly effective in refreshing the soul. Studies have shown that getting out in nature and breathing fresh air just produced by trees helps physical well-being by reducing blood pressure, heart rate and stress. We definitely felt this to be the case during our visit! We enjoyed morning’s walks along the lake as well as bike rides on the Alpine Pedal Path. We chose to continue our bike ride across the Stanfield Cutoff which provides a bike path across the end of the lake into the village of Big Bear. It’s a little over 5 miles from the campground to the end of the Alpine Pedal Path and back along the easy paved path (the path only follows part of the shoreline on the north shore and one end is close to Serrano campground). Allow a couple of hours to complete the path for a nice time. There are numerous places to stop and take in the views along with benches and signs with descriptions of the various aspects of Big Bear Lake.
Big Bear Lake also is a great place for water activities like fishing, boating / kayaking, water skiing, and relaxing on the beach. There are kayak rentals at the dock near the campground. We didn’t bring our inflatable kayak this time but did see a few campers fishing for trout from the beach. We could spot a number of large trout close to the shore while walking along the sand. There is an observatory right on the beach in front of the campground (Big Bear Solar Observatory / BBSO), but public tours have been closed due to Covid. BBSO had the largest operational solar telescope from 2008 until 2020 (until the introduction of the Inouye Solar Telescope @ 4 meter aperture in Hawaii). For those who enjoy mountain biking, Big Bear’s ski resorts (Snow Summit and Bear Mountain) turn into lift-served, gravity fed bike parks during the summer. Riders can ride the lifts to the top and choose a variety of runs to ride their bikes down to the bottom.
If you enjoy animals, plan to visit the Big Bear Alpine Zoo. The zoo is actually a rehabilitation center and sanctuary for wild animals that need help (e.g. injured, orphaned, and imprinted animals). The zoo, owned and operated by a division of the County of San Bernardino and established in 1959, releases the vast majority of animals back into the wild after their rehabilitation. We had a great visit walking the grounds of the zoo and saw a number of incredible animals, including bald eagles, golden eagles, owls, cranes, brown bears, grizzly bears, snow leopards, a white wolf, raccoons, and coyotes, among many others. Some of the animals are rescued locally and others are from other areas of the country. For example, we saw a Grizzly bear mother and her two large cubs who were rescued from Yellowstone National Park because they were constantly getting too close to the public. The mama bear was teaching her cubs to steal food from people. Most of the animals we saw seemed calm and contented, with the exception of one coyote who appeared distressed (perhaps a recent rescue). Allow at least an hour to explore the zoo (currently $15 for adult entry).
If hiking is to your liking, there are a plethora of trails to explore. With only a few days to visit and so much to see, we chose to hike one of the most renowned hikes, Castle Rock Trail. This 2.7 mile out-and-back trail is moderately challenging and takes a couple of hours to complete (with stops for views). An easy way to get to the trail from Serrano Campground is drive the CA-38E / North Shore drive (opposite direction than to the Stanfield Cutoff) around the West side of Big Bear Lake to Big Bear Blvd. on the south side of the lake. The trail parking is on the street on a curve and there isn’t much of it, so best to arrive in the early morning. There is a trail marker at the start of the trail. The trail is steep with lots of rocky terrain, so take it slowly and watch your step. Bring plenty of water and some snacks. It’s easy to get off the main trail because there are lots of side trails, but there is a solution — follow the rock baskets (cairns) which are easy to see and usually there is one within sight (or within a short walking distance from the last one). Castle Rock is off to the right near the top and there is a side trail that goes around its backside to the boulders. We climbed a small portion of the boulders and were rewarded with a great view of the lake far down below. The Castle Rock Trail continues on, and you can hike up until the trail ends and then on further if you want (at a branch at the top with another couple of trails – one to Bluff Lake)
We really enjoyed Serrano Campground at Big Bear Lake and are already planning another visit. There are a few areas of interest that were closed or we didn’t have time for during our visit which we hope we’ll be able to explore next time. We would like to visit the Discovery Center (visitor and nature center), the Big Bear Solar Observatory, the Alpine Slide, hike some more trails, enjoy an evening interpretive program, and perhaps do some kayaking on the lake. As always, make sure to take some movies to enjoy in your camper at night as well as some of your favorite games (like our favorite, Sequence). So, if you are looking for a fantastic lakeside getaway, look no further than Serrano Campground at Big Bear Lake!
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