Trip Reports - 2026 - San Bernardino Mountains

San Bernardino Mountains

Trip report and photos by Norma and Danny Siler

Additional photos by Ingo Werk

On Saturday, August 8th we led a trip to the San Bernardino Mountains. It was a beautiful day.

We had four vehicles. The group was Bud and Traci Stewart, Ingo and Mary Werk, Tom Strand and Norman Dollar, and Danny and Norma Siler.

Our meet-up location was the Big Bear Discovery Center. Then we drove to 2N09 - Polique Canyon Road which began our dirt road exploration.

We spent the day traveling in the area north of Big Bear Lake. We had ten or twelve points of interest to stop and visit. These included walking on the Pacific Crest Trail for a panoramic view of Holcomb Valley, an occasional abandoned gold mine, a couple of lonely graves, old foundation ruins of buildings for the former towns of Belleville and Doble, the Hitchcock Ranch with quite a number of horses grazing in the meadow, the 1930s Van Dusen cabin, which is still standing, a small dam built to create a pond possibly for cattle or horses, the remains of the head-frame of the Lucky Baldwin Mine, and a small cemetery of about 20 graves with newly painted crosses.

Everyone had a very good time and after thank-yous and good-byes near dry Baldwin Lake, we went our separate ways about 4:00 p.m.

-Norma & Danny