Off Leash Adventures: Camping At Holcomb Valley - Sydney's Trail Life Debut

Hi Everyone,
What a beautiful weekend we just had. It got a little hot here in SoCal, so we headed off to Holcomb Valley, near Big Bear Lake, for a cooler, more relaxed weekend of camping, hiking and off road fun!

It's become a tradition of sorts, that once Hive account@cusbgeochem1 fixes my Suzuki, that we take it off for a test drive at Holcomb Valley. Its not to far away, and a tow truck can get you home in just over an hour (as we found out when we brought my Samurai here, and his brake gave out on us), so as I'd been driving Sydney, my Sidekick, for a couple of weeks now, it was time to test her 4 wheel drive out by heading over to our favorite camping spot there, over looking the valley:

Buddy and Happy were very excited to hop in Sydney, as it has been a while since we last went camping anywhere:

Our friend Ron was joining us, whom Happy adores, so she was even more excited now she knew he was with us.
Here she is looking adoringly at him while we set up camp:

We drove up the mountain road, turned left at the sign for 'Fawnskin' and drove through the trail loop; which take you past Wilbur's Grave, straight to our camping spot, and started to set up:

I set up our tent:

and our seating area, as well as the 'Dog Thrown':

Hive account@csusbgeochem1 had pinched a nerve in his neck that morning, so he took some muscle relaxing pills and got in our tent to take a nap, hoping his neck wouldn't be as stiff and painful when he woke up.

I knew I had a couple of hours to wait for him to wake up, so me and Ron sat down to relax with some music and just enjoy the view in front of us:

The dogs enjoyed being in the cool air and sun; Buddy is a sun god, always bathing in the suns rays:

While Happy likes to dig a small hole for herself to lay in:

After a couple of hours of relaxing, I got fidgety. I can only sit for so long before I have to get up and move around, mainly as I want to see all this beauty nature has created here. So I decided to go for a little hike to check out my surroundings, the dogs wanted to join me:

This area is so beautiful to be hiking in:

We followed the skyline upwards:

and along:

We found a variety of plants:

As well as flowers of both yellow:

green buds, waiting to open...maybe this will be a yellow flower to:

and white:

As well as small cacti:

And there are pinecones as far as the eye could see!

I love this area as it reminds me of Yosemite's landscape; the big stone boulders and pine trees:

We roamed this area of boulders for a while:

Happy running around in front as always:

She truly loves being off leash and having an adventure:

I just love how the boulders seem to grow out the ground:

We had been hiking around for approximately an hour, so we started heading back to our camp:

Taking in the beauty as we walked:

Finally camp was within eye sight:

Not that Happy wanted to go back just yet:

So we allowed her to roam around the boulders at the back of our camping area:

She went all over here:

and here:

and even here:

Once the sun started to go down, the temp dropped and Buddy started to get cold. First he asked for his jumper to be put on. I'm not joking; he waits till you put a jumper on and comes up right in front of you and stands there staring you in the eye. So I'm used to this now and walk over to grab his jumper. Bud will walk right over to you when his jumper is in hand, with his tail wagging! He then got up on his thrown so he could be tucked in for another nap....well he had been hiking.

Happy was now back at camp, she must have had a lot of fun...judging by how dirty she now was:

Now it was time for dinner and star gazing before watching a movie (got to love it when your friend has wifi signal and his laptop to stream a movie on when camping). The sunset didn't last long, only a few minuets, but it was very colorful:

After getting a great nights sleep in the tent, we all got up to a beautiful morning:

and while the boys cooked breakfast, I walked the dogs for a potty break and stretch:

The dogs kept their jumper/jackets on, as it was still a little cool out.

Buddy isn't as agile as Happy and sometimes finds it hard to follow her:

But when taking this photo of Buddy I noticed the color of the moss on the boulders:

Greens, purples, even a hint of blue in there!

As we walked we found a section with cut down trees:

I found it interesting how this stump was hollowed out:

While this one was chipped away at:

Once we got back to camp, the boys had decided to test out Syd's 4 wheel drive on one of the trails here. So we packed up and headed off for a trail ride!

First we went right out of our camp and followed the trail, till it ended here:

With this obstacle at the end which Hive account@csusbgeochem1 wanted to take Syd up, but I said no as she is my daily drive, and my Samurai is supposed to be the Weekend Warrior:

As you can see Happy was enjoying herself running up and down it.
Sydney My Sidekick is a trail blazer, but not a rock crawler. Time to upgrade Norman's suspension (My Suzuki Samurai) and come back to here.
We said how if this area had some flat land, it would be an awesome campsite. It even had a cool fire pit:

I really liked this tree, it looked like it was supposed to be growing here, like it was planted with a purpose:

There was also this beautiful yellow tree that was very full and colorful:

Close up on the yellow flowers:

After hanging out here for a little while we decided to go hit a longer trail in the area. So back down this trail we went:

Buddy was enjoying the big windows in Syd, as he can have his head out of these ones:

We followed the trail to the split, where we got out to chill, and watched a Jeep convoy drive past...wonder what they think when they see my Sidekick sitting at the trail head?

The first trail from here was a black diamond trail, so we couldn't go down it:

And the second trail was also a hard trail:

This was the trail we came up:

Happy still running around:

While Buddy chilled by the cars, watching the Jeeps go past:

It was just as beautiful here as where we camped, so it was nice to just hang out for a while before we took the trail back to the Valley to go home:

Now I need to upgrade my vehicles so next time we can take one of these trails and see where it leads, and how hard a Black Run is.
Can't leave it to the Jeeps, I need to represent the Suzuki's!

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All photographs were taken by Hive account@beckymeep using an Android phone.