Hiking to Big Bear Lake | Gold Lake Highway

Hiking to Big Bear Lake from Round Lake Trailhead is a short hike to a refreshing, scenic lake making it the perfect choice for a hot summer day! There are numerous clean, clear and beautiful lakes to choose from in the Lakes Basin Area of Gold Lake Highway. And Round Lake Trailhead leads to several gorgeous lakes in the area including Big Bear Lake, Little Bear Lake, Round Lake, Silver Lake and Long Lake for starters.

You really can’t go wrong when hiking to the many lakes in the area. Play with the map and see as many as you can or grab your swim suit and jump in the first one you see! Follow along with us on our adventure hiking to Big Bear Lake and stay tuned for more about the other lakes in the area.

Basic Info: Hiking to Big Bear Lake

Distance: 0.5 miles one way to reach Big Bear Lake plus however far you hike around the lake to find your perfect spot!

Difficulty: Easy

Directions: Click here to get directions to Round Lake Trailhead to begin hiking to Big Bear Lake

Trailhead Amenities: Vault toilets

Good to Know: You cannot hike to Big Bear Lake from nearby Gold Lake. The horse rental stable made the trail from Gold Lake to Big Bear Lake private property and won’t allow access unless of course, you rent one of their horses.

Our Experience Hiking to Big Bear Lake

While we were camping near Frazier Falls it was really hot so we were looking for a short hike to one of the nearby lakes. We noticed that from Round Lake Trailhead, hiking to Big Bear Lake was only a half mile. And we would be able to see Little Bear Lake too. So we grabbed our swim suits and headed out!

As I mentioned above, there are several lakes that can be accessed from Round Lake Trailhead. But for today we kept it short and turned right at the intersection towards Big Bear Lake.

The trail starts out as a mild descent through the woods on a really dusty path. We noticed a group of people on horses up ahead and gave them plenty of space to let the dirt settle. There are some rocks and roots to watch out for along the trail too.

Since this is such a short hike, it didn’t take long before we saw our first glimpse of the sparkling blue water of Big Bear Lake. We walked down to the shore and checked it out. Big Bear Lake is a big lake with trees and granite all along its shore as well as impressive granite mountainscapes in the background.

Hike it Later – Pin it Now

We learned that the glacial activity in the area helped shape the granite in the area. And we were also surprised to find that the water in Big Bear Lake enters from Little Bear Lake.

From here, we wanted to see what Little Bear Lake looked like before we decided where we were going to jump in from. Just a little bit further of a climb up the trail, we reached the shore of Little Bear Lake. Little Bear Lake was also very pretty but substantially smaller and we figured it would be more shallow too. So we turned back and hiked back to Big Bear Lake.

There were quite a few people enjoying Big Bear Lake so we followed the trail along the shore away from all the people to a cool granite formation. Along the way we were granted beautiful views of the lake from new angles.

Time to Swim!

Finally we made it to our perfect spot. From here we could see that the lake was deep enough to jump in. And there was also a cute little island within swimming distance.

While we were working up the courage to take the first plunge, we saw this guy.

So we followed his lead and jumped in! It definitely cooled us down! We swam around awhile and then made the swim across to the island. It’s cool that the water isn’t so cold that it gives you a brain freeze like the higher elevation water that we’re used to. You can actually stay in and swim around a bit!

After the swim to the island Shane rested and soaked up the heat from the rocks. Then we swam to a different shore where we got to see some new scenery from new views as we walked around the lake back to our stuff. Hiking to Big Bear Lake made for a pretty good day adventure! We’re looking forward to checking out more of the lakes and adventures in the gorgeous Gold Lake Highway area!

Thank you for keeping up with The Lost Longboarder!

We hope you enjoyed this article about hiking to Big Bear Lake. Let us know in the comments below about some great hikes that you’ve been on!

And if you’d like to read about more of our favorite hiking adventures, check out the articles below:

• Backpacking Peeler Lake in the Hoover Wilderness
• Rustler’s Gulch Hike
• Red Mountain Trail
• Secret Side of Joshua Tree

We spend a lot of our time on the road going on adventures of all kinds! But we’re also busy working on our unique hand painted longboards. If you’d like to check those out, head over to our Lost Coast Longboarding Shop! We also design and silk screen our own t-shirts.

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