Took a short trip up Rainbow Lane in Big Bear this weekend. We did a Zip Line tour up this road in Pinzgauers to get to the starting point. The staff said this road went all the way to the desert. On the way home we took a short trip up to check it out. Anyone know if it does go all the way through? We did not have time to go any further.
I don't know about Rainbow Lane specifically, but there are a couple of nice trails that run from Big Bear down the mountain to Yucca Valley near Joshua Tree National Park. It is likely that Rainbow Lane hooks up with those trails. The best known trails start near Baldwin Lake (the 'sometimes' lake just to the east of Big Bear Lake). Burns Canyon Road (2N02), and Smarts Ranch Road (3N03) will take you from Baldwin Lake down the mountain to Yucca Valley on Hwy 62. Several other routes merge into 2N02 on the way down the mountain. On your way you'll pass near the Rose Mine, Rattlesnake Canyon (one of several in that area with that name), some very nice yucca forests, and Pioneer Town, where the Cisco the Kid movies were made and Gene Autry and Roy Rogers filmed their cowboy shows. There is even a Harley Davidson museum behind the Hwy 62 Diner! The town just to the east of Yucca Valley is Joshua Tree, where the northwest entrance to JTNP is located. That area, and the areas leading out to Barstow from there along Hwy 247, have a lot of interesting history and some great off-road trails.
2N02 is a graded Forest Service road and easy to travel. Most of the trails in that area are signed with difficulty ratings, and some of the side trails can be technically challenging. If you keep the speed and dust down near the end of 2N02/Burns Canyon Road, the residents will appreciate it
For a fun day, try navigating from Apple Valley to Yucca Valley on dirt, a very scenic ride over the San Bernardino Mountains.
