Spending the Weekend in Dog Friendly Idyllwild
Strawberry Creek, Idyllwild
The fresh mountain air, the pine trees, the lack of cars and traffic – Idyllwild in Southern California is the perfect weekend get away. We’ve been coming up to the area for day trips to go rock climbing at Black Mountain for years, but somehow have missed the charms of this darling little rustic, dog friendly, mountain village. Not anymore! I think we must come here once a month from now on for a weekend of restoration!
For a couple that is used to packing really light for adventures, our one night trip to Idyllwild involved a lot of bags. Perhaps the poor planning, perhaps the fact that it was our first weekend away with our puppy, Sebastian, we managed to have several bags of “stuff” and did a great job of overloading the 4-Runner! The forecast called for snow on Sunday afternoon, but we figured we could get up there relatively early on Saturday, find a cute place to stay, do a little exploring, and head home prior to the storm.
We had planned to do a bit of rock climbing before searching for a hotel, but the parking area for my favorite place was way too crowded. Very strange, as we’ve gone there nearly every weekend for years, and the parking lot is typically deserted other than for our rock climbing friends. We decided that since we had gone up there for peace and quiet, a dirt parking lot full of cars, probably wasn’t going to offer much peace on the trail. We decided to move on into town, find a place to stay, and then do a relaxing hike after that.
Prior to us heading up to Idyllwild, I had looked at a website that listed the places that were available for the weekend. We were looking for a place that was dog friendly, had a kitchenette, and a fireplace would’ve been a huge added bonus. If you want a place last minute, this is a great resource – idylodging.com – it lists all of the places that have rooms available for the weekend. (This is not an affiliate link).
We found a lovely little place to stay that met all of our requirements that was just a five minute walk into town. As an added bonus, they had a little creek that ran past the property. An even bigger bonus was that this creek had a nice little deck with a picnic table, but also a lovely little meandering trail that we walked on for a couple of miles. It was so peaceful!
After our hike, we headed into town to hit the grocery store for dinner food. They have a least three markets that we found – a relatively rustic market with a decent well-priced selection, a “village market” that had a little bit of everything but was priced a bit higher, and an organic food market that was closed when we were searching for breakfast items. There are also a ton of restaurants that are dog friendly – on their outside patios – that we could have checked out instead of the markets. As none of these had space heaters and it was 40 degrees F out, we figured we will wait to check them out until the weather warms up!
Downtown Idyllwild
We did a bit of exploring downtown during our grocery store run and were just enamored with the quaintness of it. They have a cute little movie theater that only charges $5 for current flix, tons of kitschy little souvenir shops, art galleries, real estate offices, restaurants, coffee shops, wine bars, outdoor stores, and Sebastian’s favorite – a doggie shop with toy options to die for! We’re looking forward to having more time to explore on our next visit some more of the fantastic dog friendly places.
Back to our darling little, rustic cabin, with bathtub, fireplace, and kitchenette for a lovely little dinner fireside. We will definitely be back again soon. We would not have changed a thing! Sunday morning, pup and I were up early for a fantastic little creek side walk along Strawberry Creek and then a quick trip into to town for eggs. We had a lovely homemade breakfast, courtesy of Todd, checked out of the hotel, and then off for a fun little hike before the snow came in.
There are TONS of hiking trails in the area. We checked out one recommended by our hotel – the Ernie Maxwell Scenic Trail in the San Bernadino National Forest. If you follow the signs to Humber Park you can’t miss it. The signage for Humber Park is really good from town.
All in all we had a fantastic weekend! Life has been way too stressful lately and this really recharged us. The fresh mountain air, relaxing hikes, and quaint little downtown, was so restorative that we have decided to try to come here on a monthly basis!
Note: Just wanted to let you know that I’m not affiliated with or paid by anyone in Idyllwild in any way. We just had a fantastic time there and wanted to share our experiences!
A few facts about our adventure:
Hotel: Silver Pines Lodge
Trails: Ernie Maxwell Scenic Trail in the San Bernadino National Forest and Strawberry Creek Trail
Sebastian’s favorite doggie store: Mountain Paws
What’s your favorite weekend getaway?
Would love to hear from you, share your favorites in the comments below.
