My rental car in California was a Ford Mustang convertible. After I left Joshua Tree National Park, I put the top down and headed northwest on Old Woman Springs Road.
Eighty miles later, I turned south up into the San Gabriel Mountains to Big Bear Lake.
The road passed above 7,000 feet before dipping down to 6,759 feet at the shore of the man-made lake. The beach parking lots were closed, but many people had parked along the road and were walking the shoreline, so I did too. I didn’t go far or stay long because the sun was setting and I still had to drive down out of the mountains. As it was, it got dark before I made it to the valley. The snow on the ski slopes is, I think, manufactured because there was none anywhere else.
It was dusk when I started down the other side of the mountain. There was a steady stream of traffic coming up the other way.
