Rustic Traditions in Southern California’s Mountain Resorts

Eloc Lodge, Idyllwild, CA (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2009)

What traits do the resorts of the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains share with the Adirondacks? Log construction, native stone work, and decorative work in twigs, branches, and bark.

Unlike the Adirondack Park—the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, created in 1892 by the State of New York to remain “forever wild”—Southern California’s scenic mountains are administered by a patchwork of federal and state agencies, Indian reservations, and private entities.

Not many of the old Southern California log houses are still standing, but several fine examples can be found in Idyllwild, at the foot of Tahquitz Rock, and Fawnskin, on the northern shore of Big Bear Lake.

See them here.