Take a trip to Big Bear for adventure, nature and scenery

I knew I wasn’t in Las Vegas anymore when I got a text from the owner of the cabin where I was going to stay that read, “The door’s unlocked and the key is inside.”

Big Bear, California, is just a little more than three hours away, but it feels like a different planet. Big Bear is 6,732 feet above sea level, and the air is thinner, the weather is cooler and the pace is decidedly laid back. Like Las Vegas, however, much of Big Bear’s economy is related to tourism, so you’re not going to be bored out there.

At the Visitors Center, 630 Bartlett Road, you can find maps, brochures and fliers for outings such as arcades, bowling, skiing, snow tubing, off-highway vehicle trails, hiking, a zoo, ziplines, fine dining and spas.

Pine Knot Avenue is the center of dining and commerce for the community. Restaurants range from the down-home Teddy Bear Cafe to the exotic Himalayan, which features Nepalese Indian cuisine. Shops sell all things bear — T-shirts emblazoned with bears; bear flags; bear-foot slippers; bear mugs, hats, bowls and essentially anything you could ever want that is the slightest bit bear related. The main drag also has antique shops, a brewery, nightclubs, a movie theater and The Copper Q, 645 Pine Knot Ave., one of the town’s most popular coffee shops, conveniently located next to one of the city’s public fire pits.

The Captain’s Anchorage, 42148 Moonridge Way, is an older place. It was built in 1946 as the Sportsman’s Tavern. The menu claims that it is haunted by an innocuous ghost who was the restaurant’s accountant when it was owned by cowboy actor Andy Devine. Although the food is high-end, it isn’t necessarily a jacket and tie place, and no one blinks at jeans and hiking boots.

Any single visit to Big Bear can only scratch the surface of the activities available, but for anyone interested in the local fauna, the Big Bear Alpine Zoo, 43285 Goldmine Drive, is a must.

The nonprofit zoo opened in 1959 and is owned and operated by Big Bear Valley Recreation & Park District. It features many animals native to the area, including racoons, bobcats, badgers, mountain lions, black bears and grizzly bears.

According to Dan McKernan who does public relations and publicity for Big Bear and produces Big Bear Guide, an advertising publication and guide to the area, the last grizzly bear near there was shot in 1911. Black bears were introduced to the area in 1933 by the California Fish and Game Department. Six were originally brought to the San Bernadino Mountains, and the best estimates put the current number there between 350 and 500.

If you want to get in touch with nature in the Big Bear area, travelers should visit Big Bear Discovery Center, 40971 North Shore Drive, on the north side of the lake. The center is co-managed by the nonprofit Southern California Mountains Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service and includes exhibits, trailheads and special events and classes.

One of the newest attractions in Big Bear is Mountain Room Escapes, 1121 W. Big Bear Blvd. Owner and game master Matt Vecchio visited a lot of escape rooms before opening his operation in a former clothing store. Visitors have just more than an hour to solve puzzles, find clues and unravel a mystery to escape the room.

“We’ve had all kinds of people in the room,” Vecchio said. “Whether they get out in time or not, everyone has a great time.”

Don’t let the homemade, family-operated nature of Mountain Room Escapes lull you into a false sense of security. The puzzles are challenging. Only 11 teams have made it out of the room’s current scenario, which traps participants in a ski lodge following an avalanche. Reservations can be booked at mountainroomescapes.com.

Big Bear remains a popular weekend getaway for the Los Angeles area. The sleepy bars and coffee shops of Friday night gave way to full rooms and sidewalk traffic jams by Saturday. The crowds were never really overwhelming, but getting breakfast on a Sunday morning can involve a bit of a wait.

The Grizzly Manor Cafe, 41268 Big Bear Blvd., came highly recommended by locals with the caveat that there is always a line out the door on weekend mornings. The line proved too daunting, but we saw the decor including walls literally covered with odd signs and objets d’art and understood why we were told it shouldn’t be missed.

Instead, we opted for The Grind & Grill Cafe, 42011 Big Bear Blvd., which was busy, but had only a small wait. My navigator ordered the establishment’s signature breakfast, The Avalanche, and bristled when the waitress asked if she wanted “the sissy portion.” A heaping plate of biscuits, hash browns, eggs, sausage and bacon covered in thick, creamy gravy arrived and despite her better efforts, she barely made a dent in the impressive pile of carbs. Some Yelp reviewers claim to have finished an Avalanche, but it seems like a facetious claim.

The lake is ringed with an assortment of stunning homes and cabins. One of the best ways to see the cabins is from the water. Boats are available for rent, and two tour boats are available when weather permits. The larger of the two, Miss Liberty, is a replica of a paddle wheeler and departs from Pine Knot Landing, 439 Pine Knot Ave. The Time Bandit, also known as the Big Bear Pirate Ship, departs from Holloway’s Marina, 398 Edgemoor Road.

The one-third scale replica of a Spanish Galleon was built in 1968 as a backyard project by a father and son in San Diego. In 1980, the ship was purchased by HandMade Films for the 1981 Terry Gilliam film “Time Bandits.”

The Time Bandit is captained by a man dressed as a pirate who introduced himself to the passengers as Captain Spectacular aided by Wench Sly. Sly loaded the passengers onto the boat and then went behind the bar to sell beer and mixed drinks.

The 90-minute tour mixed history with legend and even included a few anecdotes from the captain’s childhood in Big Bear. After the tour ended and the passengers headed off, he stripped off his pirate gear to reveal himself as longtime Big Bear resident Don Lichti.

“My family had a summer cabin here from the ’50s or so on,” Lichti said. “I spent my summers in high school and college working up here. I’ve been doing tours since 2000 on this boat, but my first tour was in 1968 on the Big Bear Queen.”

During the tour he noted the sort of details you could only get from a longtime resident, pointing out his family’s old cabin and the boat launch a drunken pilot thought was a runway and tried to land on. He also joked about one of his mishaps when the lake was quite a bit lower one year and he got the Time Bandit hung up on an until-then-unknown sandbar.

“It took us a couple hours to pull the boat off,” he said. “We call it Donovan’s Reef now.”

When the weekend was over and it was time to check out, I still hadn’t met the cabin owner at Lakewood Cabins, 586 Main St., so I texted him: “The key is inside, and the door is unlocked. Loved the cabin. Hope to be back soon.” He responded with a smile emoji.

For more information about Big Bear, visit bigbearguide.com.

To reach reporter F. Andrew Taylor email ataylor@reviewjournal.com or call 702-380-4532.