idyllwild

Dave and I took a road trip this week. We were heading over to California, our destination was 5 hours away. But Dave is always the adventurer. Instead of driving on the I-10, which is a bit of a boring drive (although a direct line to our destination), we drove on highway 62 which is a bit north, but kind of runs parallel to the 10. It's fun to see some different scenery. There is a section of road that runs along a railroad track. For miles and miles and miles, there are names spelled out in rock along the railroad track. It was amazing how long that went on. Our destination was Idyllwild, California. I think it's a new favorite vacation spot. A couple years ago we drove through randomly on another road trip when Dave was wanting to get off the I-10. We were driving in the ridiculous July heat, and drove up into the mountains just south of Palm Springs and found ourselves in a cool forest wonderland! We decided we had to go back and stay sometime. Dave gave me a weekend getaway for my birthday last fall and it has taken 6 months to find a few free days to go. We were at 2200 feet elevation on the desert floor . . . Then 24 miles later, we are at 5560 feet in elevation and looking at this out our cabin window:It was about 20+ degrees cooler and we were in the snow! We enjoyed a fire in the fireplace every evening. It was fabulous.
It is a teeny town, but has a lot of personality. It is a mix of artsy, hippie, touristy and just wonderful small town life. I wish I had taken some pictures of how pretty it was. I found I just took pictures of the goofy stuff:Dave seems to check out the fire protection systems everywhere he goes. He wasn't sure about this little baby sized fire hydrant.I called a few days before we left to ask someone about some hiking trails. I was told there were plenty of hiking trails, but there was also 10" of snow that just recently dropped on the mountain. We did end up finding a little 2 or 3 mile hike down in some lower elevations where it wasn't too icy. Actually it was just perfect. Dave is such a gentleman to hold up falling trees for me to safely pass.We liked it so much, we even found a realtor to show us a cabin that was for sale. We can dream, can't we??