Just a short 2 hour drive from Los Angeles California, Big Bear Lake is a beautiful man-made reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountain and is surrounded by towering peaks and lined by Ponderosa pine forests. At just eight miles long and approx one mile across at its widest point, it has 23 miles of shoreline and is a popular year-round playground for boating and water-sports enthusiasts.
Modern Big Bear history begins in 1845 as Benjamin Davis Wilson rode into the Yuhaviat Valley with a posse of 20 men. They were searching for outlaws who had been raiding their ranches in Riverside and as they entered this remote region, they found it was teeming with Grizzly Bears.
In 1869, a hunter named William Holcomb discovered gold in the backcountry of Big Bear after tracking an animal’s blood trail to Creek, he found it sparkling with little gold flakes. Word soon spread, the area became populated with prospectors and Southern California's gold rush began!
Because of marshy meadowlands in the center of the valley, a dam was constructed in 1884 forming a man-made reservoir for irrigating citrus crops in Redlands. In 1912 a larger dam was built to increase the water capacity of what would become known as Big Bear Lake.
Big Bear Lake is quite literally four seasons of fun! It is a year-round playground for winter and summer sport enthusiasts with unsurpassed mountain views, towering pines, hidden lakes and abundant wildlife.
In the wintertime, skiers and snowboarders make their way into the Valley to ski, snow tube and snowshoe at resorts and destinations around the lake. In Spring, marinas around the lake open for boating and water sports on the shimmering lake.
There are many Marinas dotted around the shoreline of the lake, offering all boat services such as boat rentals, boat launches and slips, boat repairs and fuel services. Lake and fishing permits are required on the lake, but these can be found at most Marinas. Find your next boat in California at Boatcrazy.
The lake is used for all kinds of boating, including powerboats, but only 2-stroke engines are allowed. Jet-skis, sailboats, row-boats, kayaks, canoes and Hobie-cats are all very popular on the lake, along with water-skiing, wakeboarding and wake-skating.
You can rent equipment of all kinds, including paddleboards, kayaks, or boats for waterskiing or fishing.
Big Bear Lake is also the perfect spot for some laid-back, leisurely fishing with alpine rainbow trout being the most popular fish found in the lake.
As a popular boat marketplace around Big Bear Lake, we
have something for everyone!
