If you are looking for a beauty in California then set your eyes on Baldwin Lake. Its rich history and pristine beauty makes it, a colorful destination for anyone wanting to spend a day on the waters of California.

And BeachCalifornia.com describes it,

Today at Baldwin Lake you’ll find another kind of gold, slender-petaled mustard (Thelypodium stenopetalum), an endangered species that flourishes in the moist meadow areas of the ecological reserve. In the spring after the snow melts, the valley comes alive with fantastic colors that include yellows, oranges and purples from flowers such as the Parish’s rock-cress. California Department of Fish and Game manages the Baldwin Lake Ecological Reserve in which these flowers bloom. They take special note of buckwheat and paintbrush growing at Baldwin Lake. These plants, like the mustard, appear on the state and federal endangered species lists.

For botanists and ornithologists, Baldwin Lake is a treasure trove of rare and endangered plants, birds and fish species. Even geologists delight in the treeless pebble plains occurring from an Ice Age lake that formed the clay soils that swell when wet, then shrink and crack in the dry months. Over thousands of years, this cycle of swelling and shrinking, combined with freezing, has pushed up pebbles that accumulate on the surface. The combination of unique soils, harsh growing conditions and isolation from other similar areas has created a plant community found nowhere else in the world.

Small quartz, pebbly rocks spring forth low growing, tufted plants rooted in the crevices. The flowers of cushion-like plants create a panorama of color. Special adaptations to the weather conditions include tiny leaves covered with fine hairs to reduce water loss during the many days of mountain sun. The ash-grey paintbrush with unusual gray leaves obtains nutrients by tapping into the roots of nearby plants. Kennedy’s buckwheat, another rare Baldwin Lake-area plant, grows deep roots that anchor it even when the clay freezes and expands beneath.

Bald eagle habitats in the rare pebble plain make this region an attractive study for environmentalists, nature lovers and those who simply want to explore the great outdoors in all its splendor. In addition to its unique pebble plain with that springs forth rare plants, hikers may spot coyotes and deer. Birds include saw-whet and screech owls, great horned owls, Cooper’s hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, red-tailed hawks and kestrels. Other birds found at the ecological reserve include the red-breasted nuthatch and the Western bluebird.

With those words describing the Baldwin Lake, who wouldn’t like to visit this beautiful place?

According to Wikipedia.com,

Baldwin Lake is a natural, intermittent, alkali lake in a valley of the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California. The depth of Baldwin Lake’s lowest point is approximately 25 feet (7.6 meters). At its widest, the lake is more than a mile across. Chaparral grows on the surrounding terrain. It is part of the Baldwin Lake Ecological Reserve.

Benjamin Davis Wilson encountered the lake in 1845, while tracking horse thieves in the San Bernardino Mountains. When Wilson saw that the region was populated by many grizzly bears, he divided his 22 men into hunting partners. The men slaughtered 11 bears for the fur pelts. While returning to Jurupa (Riverside), they slaughtered another 11 bears for the fur. Wilson named the region Big Bear Valley, and the lake he called Lake Big Bear.

In 1884, the Bear Valley Land and Water Company began construction of a dam southwest of the lake. The company’s stakeholders named the new reservoir Big Bear Lake. They also renamed the alkali lake to Baldwin Lake, after Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin, who came to Big Bear and Holcomb Valley in 1876 when he purchased Gold Mountain Mine (later renamed Baldwin Mine).

And if you wish to see a Photo History of this place, I found a site that gives you an inside look on what life used to be on Baldwin Lake. You can click here to see them.