Trailing Blue Quartz & Delamar Mountain Trail – Big Bear, CA

[bronco.brandon]

I made a short video hitting some trails while visiting Big Bear CA!

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[Joemama]

What app are you using for the trails?

 

[bronco.brandon]

What app are you using for the trails?

ONX Offroard

 

[Felix808]

I made a short video hitting some trails while visiting Big Bear CA!

When was this? I was just up there Friday & it didn't look anything like that

 

[bronco.brandon]

When was this? I was just up there Friday & it didn't look anything like that

January 28-29 Caught the last of the snow

 

[timhood]

I made a short video hitting some trails while visiting Big Bear CA!

OMG, I just posted a pic today from almost the exact same spot! (Different time, though)

 

[timhood]

I made a short video hitting some trails while visiting Big Bear CA!

I didn't see in your video, but it looks like you were close...did you get to Bellvill Holcomb Valley? There's an old cabin there and it looks out onto a valley where people first settled in the mid 1800s. If I remember correctly, people came to the area in search of gold (no surprise), and while there was some mining, I don't think much gold was ever extracted, and not much more silver. After that site, I think we took Holcomb Valley Road all the way until we ended back up on North Shore Drive east of Big Bear Lake.

 

[Dusty]

OMG, I just posted a pic today from almost the exact same spot! (Different time, though)

I have a pic from damn near that spot too

 

[Dusty]

I didn't see in your video, but it looks like you were close...did you get to Bellvill Holcomb Valley? There's an old cabin there and it looks out onto a valley where people first settled in the mid 1800s. If I remember correctly, people came to the area in search of gold (no surprise), and while there was some mining, I don't think much gold was ever extracted, and not much more silver. After that site, I think we took Holcomb Valley Road all the way until we ended back up on North Shore Drive east of Big Bear Lake.

There was actually quite a lot of gold mined out of Holcomb Valley, which was primarily placer deposits, plus several hard rock operations on the rocky ridges around it. About 350,000 ounces. I don't believe any significant amounts of silver were ever mined there, although one of the larger hard rock mines was owned by and named for Lucky Baldwin, who had previously made his fortune in the Comstock Lode silver mines at Virginia City, Nevada. You would have driven past the remains of the Lucky Baldwin mine just before exiting the east end of Holcomb Valley road near the dump.

There's a historical marker at the Belleville site. It was placed there by the Billy Holcomb chapter of E Clampus Vitus, which I'm a member of, though that was before my time.

 

[Billy Baroo]

Nicely done Bronco.Brandon Should be a lot of snow after this storm comes through.
Does anyone know if you can overnight camp on this trail ?

 

[bronco.brandon]

Nicely done Bronco.Brandon Should be a lot of snow after this storm comes through.
Does anyone know if you can overnight camp on this trail ?

Yes you can camp overnight with an adventure pass. I found plenty of great camping spots along the Delemar Mountain Trail, with several decent pull-off points for setting up camp. I havent had the chance to camp there myself, but someone with more experience could probably share more details.

 

[Dusty]

Nicely done Bronco.Brandon Should be a lot of snow after this storm comes through.
Does anyone know if you can overnight camp on this trail ?

We've camped along this trail before, but on the backside of Delamar Mountain along forest road 3N12C, which it doesn't look like @bronco.brandon included on his trip (probably a good idea as the snow would have been deeper on that side). 3N12C is a lesser-used road (and slightly more technical than Blue Quartz/Delamar Mtn Rd), that can be used to connect back to Polique Canyon making a complete circle around Delamar Mountain. For some reason they don't show this trail in ONX but you can see it in their satellite view map overlay, and it does show on Google Maps. Anyhow there are several very nice campsites along that section, and the fact that it's lesser-traveled (and probably slightly tougher than most non-4X4s would attempt) makes it even better. Here's the spot were we've camped before and it was very nice: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pVWYPWTqfDG7yNGU9

 

[Red Sox 4Life]

I made a short video hitting some trails while visiting Big Bear CA!

Been to the San Bernardino Mountains many times (live in Yucaipa) haven't heard of either of those trails, but it looks like a great place to take the Grandkids for some snow fun away from all the idiots! The "Line Fire" torched quite a few trails I wanted to try out.

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