By I love fall colors but unfortunately, fall colors don’t come to L.A. so I had to go find it. Early October, we drove up to Big Bear Lake for an overnight trip with my sister. BBL is one of my favorite places to visit with Xena. There are plenty of dog-friendly trails for us to explore and the town itself is pet-friendly. At an altitude of 7,000 feet, the air is crisp and refreshing this time of the year. It makes a perfect fall getaway!
It took us a little over 2 hours to get there and arrived around lunchtime as planned. We drove to Blanca and Pierre’s to pick up some sandwiches to go. They have pet-friendly outdoor seating but our plan was to have lunch on the mountain.
Well, we forgot that service is generally slow in BBL. This is actually a good thing for me because it forces me to slow down as soon as I get there. Our supposedly 10-min stop actually took 40 minutes. By the time we got our food, we were starving. We decided to go to Aspen Glen Picnic Area and have lunch first.
The picnic area was spacious and it was right at the trailhead. Convenient. It was less than 1.5 miles from the restaurant. We were glad about the short drive because we both were starving. After we filled our stomachs to happiness, we began our hike. The trailhead was clearly marked as below and we could already see some fall colors from there.
The single-track path was easy to follow and the incline was gradual.
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I was absolutely delighted with the fall colors! This time of the year, I do miss the East Coast fall. I could have liked to see more reds but I wasn’t going to complain.
As we gained elevation, the lake came into our view.
So we began to look for a good spot to hang my hammock and found a perfect spot. Soon, Xena fell asleep on top of me and my sister with both of us gently petting her.
Xena cannot stay up anymore when we hang out in the hammock. It is one of our favorite things to do together now. It is so relaxing, calming, and almost meditative. All of us hung out in the hammock that afternoon, talking, napping, just hanging out until it was almost dinner time. It was a perfect fall hike, wouldn’t you say?
Good to Know:
- Hike Date: 10.1.16
- Distance: 4 miles RT with an option to make it longer or shorter
- Elevation Gain: 957 feet (max elevation: 7,717 ft)
- Difficulty Level: Moderate-Challenging
- Trailhead: 34.236322, -116.927192 (copy/paste to your GPS app)
- Bathroom available at the trailhead
- Parking: Adventure Pass required for parking. You can purchase a pass at the Big Bear Discovery Center.
Hiking Girl with Dog 
You guys are so good at chilling! That whole staying still in a hammock thing is kinda beyond me still.
Haha!! And why you just can’t relax and chill in the hammock is beyond me. The hammock cradles you and rocks gently. I feel like a baby in the hammock and Xena agrees.
I was looking into this Bear Butt hammock on Amazon, I am glad seeing someone using! Now I might get it for sure.
It’s a great hammock! I love mine. It fits two people comfortably and a pup. I bought their tree strap which is another good purchase. If you are thinking of doing that as well, buy the hammock first. You will get a discount code from them after your purchase. You can use it for the tree strap. 😊
Oh that’s awesome, thank you for the tip! I am going to order it later today.
LOVE this – I wish JoJo would sit in my hammock with me – she just wont sit still – too many squirrels to keep an eye on I guess! 🙂
Haha, that’s a tough competition for you! Squirrels always win! Happy Thanksgiving, Dana!
I also miss the Fall colors of the East Coast and there isn’t a lot of it in southwest Oklahoma, but there is some in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge where I hike, so I’m happy. Beautiful pictures!
Thank you! I am glad you still get some in OK and you don’t have to drive too far. 🙂
Beautiful! I love hiking with my dog, although it’s hard finding too many off leash trails in my area.
Thank you! It’s the same here but we hike early in the day when practically no one else is on the trail and I avoid popular urban trails. I carry a leash all the time though in case we run in to other hikers and dogs. Xena doesn’t stray off. She stays on the trail and responses well to a recall command so we haven’t run into any issue with her being off leash.