Big Bear Lake
Louie welcomes everyone to Big Bear Lake, CA. To the Serrano Band of Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of Yahaviat or Pine Place until it became Big Bear Valley, a grizzly bear like Louie was thought of as their great grandfather. 
For those who consider driving a sport, the drive to the Big Bear Valley which takes more than two hours from San Diego becomes a thrill past Highway 330 at Highland into the San Bernardino National Forest. Slow drivers are urged to use turn outs else a motorcade starts and ends four miles after into passing lanes. Some turn outs are overlooks or rest areas where one can discreetly take a leak.
Highway 18 is not only sport for drivers, it is also a sport for road bicycle riders pushing themselves uphill at 7,000 feet elevation.
Big Bear Lake is more like Lake Tahoe to me, a much smaller version since it is man made. The lake was created after a dam was built on 1883, almost forty ears after the valley was discovered by Benjamin Wilson sometime about 1835.
Tourism escalated and what used to be Louie's domain became a winter resort for snowboarders and skiers in Southern California. Today, Big Bear Lake is swarming with prime land property owners showcasing their vintage cars and weekend visitors who drove all the way for some fun: hike, kayak in Summer or ski or snowboard in Winter. 
Benjamin Wilson was said to be leading a search for those who had been raiding ranches in Riverside. Those bandits were written about in Big Bear Valley history as Indians. (I don't have the heart to refer to Native Americans as Indians.) Once Wilson's group reached the top of the mountain ranges however, they found the valley swarming with grizzly bears, instead. Just imagine them running for their lives away from the valley.
However, due to unregulated hunting, the gold rush and the cattle boom, the likes of Louie, along with the Serrano band of Native Americans, eventually disappeared in the valley.
Most of my interest on the valley has something to do with the PCT transversing the valley. Not far from the trial head of Cougar Crest Trail, the local trail that connects to the PCT, is the Serrano Campground. 
The Big Bear history included in the 2015 Official Lodging and Visitors' Guide of Big Bear Lake did not mention anything about the Serrano Band of Native Americans who have lived in the for last 2,000 years and way back. But at the Boulder Bay Park, Louie, stands upright and immortalized in a giant wood carving in front of a public restroom. Gone are his great grandchildren.
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