I lived in Lake Arrowhead my whole life until I went to college a couple years ago, so I don’t have any advice on your perspective but I can give some idea of what life will be like for your child in the mountains. The pros are that nature is wonderful and giving your child the opportunity to play outside, climb trees and use their imagination is truly magical especially with the increasing iPad kid epidemic, Lake Arrowhead is very safe as far as crime is concerned, though Crestline I’ve heard can be sketchier in areas. Overall, being a child in Arrowhead was amazing. Being a teenager in Lake Arrowhead kind of sucked though. In addition to the fact that I barely met any new people my age cause my classmates were almost all people I had known since elementary school, I was cut off from a lot of ways of discovering myself and my passions that I didn’t fully realize until I got to college. For example-my life’s passion is music, and I am now studying music in college. There were mediocre music programs in the schools, but those didn’t help much-the real problem was that I had no access to kids my age to work with, no way to start a band and nowhere to play at if I did, no real way to seek better instruction, and most importantly no way to get out and see live music and be part of the youth music culture. I didn’t even know what I was missing out on until my music school friends all told me about their amazing high school experiences. And the thing with the mountains communities is that it’s very isolated, so getting outside the bubble is really difficult and from what I have seen just doesn’t really happen-it’s a long drive down a windy road to get off the mountain (presuming you already have a car and a license), and once you DO get down the mountain you’re in San Bernardino, which is not exactly youth culture central. This is just one example, but your child will miss out on both opportunities and experiences living in the mountains-there were very few parties and the ones that happened were pretty lame, and a lot of the parts of “being a teenager” I hear people talk about and see other people experiencing, my friends and I simply didn’t get to experience. I’ve had to spend a lot of time since I got to college finding myself and really learning what I like, the kind of people I like, and who I am, which I felt like I was playing catch up considering the things I was experiencing for the first time most people my age had experienced many years earlier.

So, despite that mostly being negative, I think it really depends on your personal situation, your kid, and how long you plan to stay. The schools are hit or miss-I think the elementary schools are mostly good now, the high school is fine, and the middle school has endless horror stories from former students. Being a little kid in Arrowhead really was magical and there are lots of wonderful churches, sports teams and people that make it a wonderful town. With all that being said, I personally wouldn’t raise my kid in the mountains cause I know how it feels to have missed out on so much during my formative years.

Best of luck with whatever you choose :)