24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Wrightwood, CA

Wrightwood is an unincorporated census-designated place in San Bernardino County, sitting at an elevation of 6,208 feet in a pine-covered valley of the San Gabriel Mountains, about 77 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

The Wrightwood area began as 19th-century cattle ranches run by Nathan and Truman Swarthout, and the community took root in the 1920s after rancher Sumner Wright subdivided his ranch into residential and commercial lots.

Downtown Wrightwood is still dotted with old resort cabins from the 1930s, a reminder of its days as a vacation community before it became a town of full-time residents.

The 2020 census counted 4,720 residents in Wrightwood, living in 1,984 households with an average household size of 2.38 people.

Roughly a quarter of Wrightwood's 2,664 housing units stood vacant in the 2020 census, reflecting the many vacation and second homes in town, while about 79% of occupied homes were owner-occupied.

Just west of Wrightwood at Big Pines is Mountain High Resort, a popular ski and snowboard area spread across three mountains on slopes first developed for skiing in the 1920s, when the ski area was part of a Los Angeles County park.

Wrightwood's high-elevation Mediterranean climate delivers an average of about 62 inches of snow per year, and the Pacific Crest Trail passes through the community.

Local children attend schools in the Snowline Joint Unified School District, including Wrightwood Elementary School in town and Serrano High School in neighboring Phelan, which opened in 1977.

Wildfire is a recurring threat: part of Wrightwood was evacuated during the Blue Cut Fire of August 2016, and the entire town was evacuated during the Bridge Fire in September 2024.

The writer Aldous Huxley lived in Wrightwood for several years, and Olympic snowboarder Maddie Mastro grew up there.