Bluff Lake is a
lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
in the
Big Bear Valley
Big Bear Valley is a valley in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The valley, in the San Bernardino Mountains, includes Big Bear Lake, Big Bear City, Fawnskin, Holcomb Valley, Sugarloaf, Erwin Lake, Baldwin Lake, Bluff Lake and ...
of the
San Bernardino Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...
, in
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...
. It is located southwest of
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the Western United States, western United States, located in the San Bernardino Mountains in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County, California. It is a snow and rain-fed lake, having no other m ...
reservoir and
Big Bear City.
[Big Bear Frontier: "All About Bluff Lake in Big Bear"]
. accessed 2.2.2019.
Geography
Located in one of Southern California’s only alpine meadows, the lake sits at a surface elevation of .
Bluff Lake Reserve
Bluff Lake Reserve includes a pine forest, a lake and meadow, and outcrops of quartz monzonite. The reserve includes a mountain marsh and meadow complex that contains the federally threatened Bear Valley bluegrass (Poa atropurpurea), the federally endangered Big Bear checkerbloom (Sidalcea pedata) and California dandelion (Taraxacum californicum). Botanical features in the meadow include 16 species of sedges (Carex), eight species of wire grass (Juncus) and 14 species of native grass. Mature forests of lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine, and white fir surround the meadow.
History
In 1899, Gus Knight and Hiram Clark (Clark Grade Road) built the Bear Valley and Redlands Toll Road via the Santa Ana Canyon past Bluff Lake. Early buses known as White Stages paused near Bluff Lake on their way to Big Bear Lake in 1915.
After acquiring this preserve in 2000,
The Wildlands Conservancy drained the lake to eliminate non-native catfish to restore the native aquatic systems that had been decimated by artificially stocked lakes in Southern California.
In 2011,
Camp Gilboa bought the 40-acre camp on Bluff Lake from The Wildlands Conservancy, which had purchased and renovated the property five years earlier.
The summer camp scenes from the Walt Disney film,
The Parent Trap (1961 film)
''The Parent Trap'' is a 1961 American romantic comedy film written and directed by David Swift. It stars Hayley Mills (in a dual role) as a pair of teenage twins plotting to reunite their divorced parents by switching places with each other. ...
were filmed at the camp, then known as Bluff Lake Camp, owned at that time by the Pasadena YMCA.
Dr. Dolittle 2, starring
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He had his breakthrough as a standup comic before gaining stardom for his film roles; he is widely recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time. H ...
, was filmed at Bluff Lake.
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References
External links
Bluff Lake Reserve
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Lakes of San Bernardino County, California
Big Bear Valley
San Bernardino Mountains
San Bernardino National Forest
Nature reserves in California
Natural history of San Bernardino County, California
Protected areas of San Bernardino County, California
Lakes of Southern California
Lakes of California