Escape From L.A.

Unlike the Palm Springs area, a 45-minute drive away, Idyllwild is a four-season vacation spot, with snow in the winter (but no skiing options), foliage in the fall and tolerable temperatures in the summer. Elena Kern, owner of the Four Corners Art Gallery, says she knows when temperatures hit triple digits in Palm Springs because the downtown stores fill up with day-trippers from the desert.

"It's usually 30 degrees cooler up here, so they come up for the day to escape the heat," she said.

Most of Idyllwild's residences are vacation homes. We opted to rent one instead of booking rooms at one of the town's handful of rustic inns. The two-bedroom cabin was about a mile outside the village, with a wraparound deck, outdoor hot tub and more birdhouses and pine cones than we cared to count. A woman named Dixie was our emergency contact for the weekend, and she responded quickly to our one complaint: The hot tub's thermometer was stuck at 105 degrees, too hot for comfort.

Despite the town's "Northern Exposure" vibe, we discovered flashes of sophistication during our stay, such as the excellent jazz trio at Cafe Aroma that featured Lee Ritenour's keyboardist and the perfect Cosmopolitans served at the tiny bar of the Creekside Inn.

Nothing impressed us more within the town, however, than our dinner at the Gastrognome, a candlelit restaurant decorated (with some restraint) with garden gnomes of many shapes, sizes and textures. The menu featured enough specials and entrees for three restaurants, which isn't usually a good sign, but our meals of smoked salmon pasta, pepper steak and ginger-and-lime halibut ranged from good to exceptional.

Even the wine list deserves a shout -- a large selection of solid, can't-miss brands for reasonable prices, plus several ultra-premium offerings, including Opus One.

The next day, memories of our pleasant meal helped us plow through the first leg of our rigorous trek to Tahquitz Peak via the South Ridge Trail. Then the gorgeous green-mountains-meet-blue-sky views took over. On clear days, the Channel Islands, to the west of Santa Barbara and nearly 300 miles away, are visible from the old fire lookout at the top, though we had to settle for endless rows of rock- and pine-studded mountains wrapped in an ethereal white mist.

It was Rodriguez, the Forest Service ranger, who recommended we try the South Ridge Trail. He suggested leaving before daybreak to get to a viewpoint called Window Rock just as the sun rose over the pastoral Garner Valley. "You'll never see another sunrise like that," he said.

We didn't quite make it in time to experience the sunrise, but as we neared Window Rock and its sweeping panorama of rock and pine-studded mountains, we realized we didn't really need to.

Laura Randall last wrote for Travel on California's Griffith Observatory.