Holiday getaway: Cut down your own Christmas tree in Plumas National Forest

Cutting down a Christmas tree is a tradition for many families — and a staple outing in nearly every Hallmark holiday movie. Christmas tree farms offer plenty of Douglas firs and Monterey Cypress, of course, but for those who crave the nostalgia of chopping down an imperfect pine in the wilderness, there’s another option.

Tucked away in the Lost Sierra in Plumas County, the cozy town of Graeagle sits along the Middle Fork Feather River about an hour north of Truckee. With a population of less than 1,000, the small town offers all the wintry, holiday charm of a movie — you know, the kind where a big city exec falls in love with a lumberjack trying to save his family business.

The tree-sourcing experience requires nothing more than a $10 permit from the Plumas National Forest, a hand saw and a sense of adventure. A four-wheel drive vehicle helps, especially when the weather is a bit wet. Consult a map and you’ll find several places where you can get off the main road and cut down your largest holiday decoration. Most are just a small jog from the main stretch, a couple of miles at most up a dirt road, where plenty of very tall pine trees await. (Plus a few Charlie Brown trees, if that’s what you’re into.)

The actual tree cutting takes just a few minutes — half an hour, if you’re picky. But if you trekked the four to five hours from the Bay Area to save $100+ on your tree, you may as well make a weekend of the experience — and this region makes it easy. (And if you’d rather rely on your faux tree at home, come on up anyway and enjoy a lazy weekend up here in the snowy Sierra.)