High up in the San Bernardino Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains, the great scenic region of Southern California, were compared with the Alps of Switzerland during the jaunt by newspaper men of the Southland over the 150 miles of mountain highways recently.
"I have stood amid the mountains of Switzerland and drank in the beauties of Mount Blanc and the Matterhorn," declared Chester M. Kline, an editor from San Jacinto, who has traveled much of the world, "and after this journey I must tell you that lacking only the glaciers and perpetual snow caps, we have in the San Bernardino Mountains scenes which surpass any and all of those famed vistas and many times more of them, with infinite variety." Kline declared he desired to return to the mountains and see them when they are manteled under the winter's snow.
J. P. Baumgartner of Santa Ana commented: "The scenes are incomparable in sublimity, in delicate shading and ever-shifting vistas. We never shall forget the unfolding of the panorama of mountain and canyon, lake and valley, and 'See America First' takes on from this experience a new and broader significance. We know that mortal conception may not embrace more of beauty and grandeur."
The newspapermen went over roads that cost $1,000,000 to build, and they told the members of the board of supervisors of San Bernardino County that they had spent their money well.
The trip led up the new road of Mill Creek Canyon, which winds up the slope of Mount St. Bernardino to Seven Oaks. On this road there was expended $45,000 this year. It is to be continued into Bear Valley, through a new and virgin region.
A mountain storm greeted the newspaper men as they went up through Mill Creek. The sun shone on them from the west, and rain from the east beat into their faces. Just as sunset a great bolt of lightning struck a huge pine tree, and it blazed out in fire.
At Seven Oaks, after spending the night there, the newspaper writers turned back to the west through the Barton Flat region, to reach the Santa Ana Canyon road, the main route of travel into Bear valley in the eastern portion of the range. They were shown the general direction the Mill Creek road is to take into Bear Valley.
The ascent up the Santa Ana road, from the Bear Creek Hill where the Barton Flat road joins it, took the party to the highest point in Southern California reached by a road, the summit, about 8,000 feet. Towering above, and forming the roof for Southern California, are Mt. San Bernardino and Mt. San Georgonio, each about 12,000 feet.
Bear Valley, thirty-eight miles from San Bernardino, was reached early in the afternoon. The valley looks from afar like a beautiful garden holding up a lake of blue.
The four trucks of the party wound their way about the Bear Valley country, and there were visits to Bluff Lake, a run across to Gold Mountain, with glimpses of the desert, and to Baldwin Lake, which was black with millions of wild ducks.
At Bear Lake there was fishing, picturing and tramping.
Pineknot Lodge that night was the scene of an "experience" meeting of the newspaper men, and they told of their travels, and marveled at the beauties they had seen during the first two days of their trip.
The roads which they had traveled during the two days of the trip to Bear Valley were good. At the Bear Creek Hill, in the Santa Ana Canyon, the old peril of that route, workmen had about completed blasting the way through for a new ascent, to greatly reduce the grade. Within a few weeks this work will be completed. The new road has been hewn out of solid rock.
The Mill Creek Road, which has all been constructed this year, was just a trifle soft, but the rains of winter will harden it for traffic next summer. Like other roads of the San Bernardino Mountains, the Mill Creek road clings to the tops of great canyons.
Snow will close the Bear Valley road late in the winter, and the duck hunters will be required to enter the region during the latter part of the season by the way of the desert road. The Cushionberry grade has been eliminated. It was once the steepest grade in Southern California.
There was considerable sentiment connected with the visit of the newspaper men at Pineknot, for the writers asked and received the donation of the greatest pine tree of the mountains, standing near the lodge, and they named it "Sam." Samuel Pine, chairman of the Board of Supervisors of San Barnardino County, is one of the leading good road boosters of Southern California. A brass plate will be placed on the pine, with the simple inscription, "Sam."
The triple falls of Mill Creek were named James Falls, in honor of Supervisor J. C. Jones, another good roads booster, and a majestic point in Mill Creek was named Glover Point, for Supervisor J. B. Glover.
On a new road to be built on the crest, swinging out over the dam from Bear Valley direct to the head of Deep Creek, a point has been selected to be named in honor of Supervisor George E. Butler, that looks over all of Southern California. It is Butler who is guardian of the mountain roads of San Bernardino County.
Following the night at Bear Valley the party started on the climax of the trip, the thirty-seven mile ride along the very crest of the ridge, 6,500 to 5,000 feet in elevation. The newspaper men looked over all of Southern California. They could see nearly to the State lines of Arizona and Nevada, to the north and east and to the south and west they could have seen the Pacific but for the distant fog.
Little Bear Valley was sighted from the summit of Deep Creek. The desert had already unfolded as far as Death Valley, from the rise beyond the "Snowslides," and at Fredalba, after winding along with the waters of Deep Creek on the old lumber railroad grade, now made over into a boulevard, the great valleys of Southern California came into view, and for miles there were views that stretched away until the earth seemed to vanish. Other mountains were like pigmies below.
The road was 37 miles over the crest from Bear Valley to Pinecrest and in good shape. This, too, had been built this year and was a little soft, but the car had no difficulty at all.
The last really great views of Southern California came when the party cut across the face of Strawberry Peak, where the road clings to the cliff that falls away in a sheer drop of 2,000 feet, and again as Pinecrest was reached.
It was then seventeen miles back to San Bernardino, through Squirrel Inn and Skyland, and down the switchbacks into the beautiful Waterman Canyon, past the Arrowhead Hotel and into the Gate City.
There are two notable extensions to the great highways which the newspapermen saw, to be made next year and the year following. From the head of Deep Creek into Bear Valley, on the crest, the greater scenic region to the south of the present route via Holcomb Creek, is to be the path. A bridge will be built directly over the big dam at Bear Lake, the road entering at the south instead of the north end of the valley.
The Mill Creek Road is to be continued from the summit above Seven Oaks into Bear Valley, joining in the great loop system The surveys for these two roads have been made.
