Living in San Diego, CA can sometimes leave you feeling claustrophobic needing a respite. Thankfully there are quite a few small towns just a few hours away from the downtown area that leave you feeling refreshed after visiting. Neither of us had visited Idyllwild so we decided to spend a few days exploring. It's a 2 hour ride with beautiful winding back roads taking you through the desert into the mountains.
We stayed at the Dark Canyon Campground. The entrance isn’t correctly marked on the maps app and phone service is spotty so make sure you find it on the map before heading out. There is a small sign on the side of the road marking the correct entrance. After taking the correct turn the road splits a few times leading to other campsites which are reservation sites. The road leading to the campground veers to the left and is a progressively steep decline, one side is mountain the other is a steep drop off. This is a really fun road to ride on a motorcycle. There are no camp stores so after arriving and choosing our site Hoang left to pick up supplies while I set up camp. We arrived Thursday night and only one other spot was taken. It was one of the most beautiful peaceful places I’ve ever camped.
The next day was spent exploring stopping first at the Indian Vista Scenic Overlook. We enjoyed the view point because you can either hangout at the designated viewing area or explore going a bit further where the view opens up. There is a small dirt path to the left of the viewing area which leads to a small cluster of rocks and a shade tree to hangout under
Our next stop was just down the road at Lake Fulmor. It was fairly busy but still peaceful. We set up a hammock next to the lake, had a picnic, spent some time sketching and enjoying the view. After relaxing for a while we strolled around the lake which ended up being about a mile in length with a paved path, shady trees and a great place for our dog Archer to run around.
The next day was spent exploring the town. It’s very small but has some cute shops and even had a community yard sale where we scored some cool vintage stuff. There are quite a few restaurants in town so it was easy to find some where to eat that was dog friendly. After eating we started our drive back through the forest into the desert and home to San Diego.
The drive home was just as beautiful as the drive out and a great way to end such a relaxing trip. We’ve included a google map which has notes about each place we stopped along the way. Hopefully when you head out this way you enjoy it as much as we did -C
