December 19, 2009
We found a day to spend out of town. Only 40 minutes away is a beautiful drive through the San Jacinto Mts to about 5,300 ft above Palm Springs and to the small town of Idyllwild. The super windy road takes you to the Strawberry Valley where Idyllwild sits amongst pine trees, rocks and the occasional redwoods and various shops. The population of approximately 3,700 hosts about 75% vacation residences; some of which are timbered, rock fireplace, 100+ year old treasures.

I know many Canadians that would envy this sign!

Around the corner are chocolate shops, locally owned restaurants and lots of live music Thurs-Sun; Jazz is popular, country & western, mexican, etc and there is a performing arts boarding school, many local artists and photographers. This is an artsy-fartsy town, quaint and lots of character.

Artwork of David Roy, chainsaw artist

He continues to work on a large town monument that will depict 20 animals of past & present. He originally did airbrushing work for Disney, including Jungle Book, until Disney required a carved foam sculpture of a bear & he has carried on from there. Below is the entrance to his 'workshop.'

The terrian is georgeous with granite rock, manzanita trees, redwoods, elms and pines (& what I believe were black oak). One of the favorite activities in this town is rock climbing; everything from 'boulder climbing' for starters to climbing equipment required for the peaks of Tahquitz and Suicide Rocks.

They do get snow; an average of 60" a year and they had some last Tuesday which brought people out to snowshoe and some areas you can cross country. We saw people 'sliding' in small areas where there were small banks of snow from the ploughs. In the summer, people come here to avoid the high 100-120 F temperatures of Hemet & other areas. Summer highs are around 26-32 C (80+ F).

The descent down the other side of the range took us to Cabazon (en route to Palm Springs) and only 20 minutes from Hemet.

Interestingly, "stars" such as Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton have apparently stayed in Idyllwild; avoiding the climate, attention & crowds of Palm Springs and Palm Desert. Maybe, when we go back, we will rub shoulders with someone from the Big Screen.