The Saturday before Thanksgiving is traditionally the El Tour de Tucson, a bike racing festival with numerous races for different skills. The longest, for the professional and advanced riders, is over 100 miles long and came as far east as the town of Vail, Arizona. This posting celebrates the riders, as well as the beautiful views of the area.
Many riders ‘posed’ as they rode past.
The first of many flashing the universal sign of Shaka (Hawaiian for Hang Loose/Right On)
Over the dry river and through the hills to Grandma’s house for an early Thanksgiving.
Tucson is located at the base of Mt Lemmon, a 9300′ high mountain. The Catalina Highway goes all the way up the mountain, providing a biological and ecological perspective in the 27 mile drive, and 7,000 vertical feet in elevation gain that is the same as driving from Mexico to Canada.
The road starts in far northeastern Tucson
It doesn’t take long to gain enough elevation for a panoramic view of the city, while passing hillsides of Saguaro cactus.
For many years the road was known as one of the most dangerous in the area, but years of improvements have made it very safe, with numerous overlooks.
The appropriately named Thimble Peak is on the right of this view.
The stop at Windy Point has a large area for hiking around – a good point about 1/2 way up the mountain for an extended break.
There are numerous hoodoos in the lower elevations.
Once you go above 8000′ elevation the terrain changes, with forests of evergreens and aspen trees, with their fall colors.
The small tourist town of Summerhaven has long been a respite from the desert heat.
Mt Lemmon Ski Valley is known as the southernmost ski resort in the country. While Tucson is in the desert, with about 11 inches of precipitation a year, rarely as snow, Mt Lemmon has almost 200″ of snow a year at the summit.
A couple of miles further on up the mountain is the summit. A recent wildfire has left some of the hills burnt, but as always the vegetation returns.
The view of Tucson from 7000′ above the valley floor is amazing. This is one of the countries best drives.
The drive back down took us from 52 degrees at the summit to 85 degrees in the valley floor, as we returned back to the Sonoran Desert.
An unexpected, brief, trip to Chicago left me without a camera – so this posting is solely the result of an iPhone camera.
A quick internet search for some of the more interesting murals in the city, plus discovering some not on the list by chance. I like to find murals that the surroundings add to the photo as well.
Many were in locations that made it tough to get a clear photo, but the varied angles also have added to the composition, rather than a ‘directory of images’.
As noted is the last posting, Jerome Arizona prides themselves on being a ghost town. Just outside of town is the King Gold Mine – in actually a quirky, but cool, tourist spot where you can pan for gold. Their real ‘gold’ however is in the huge collection of old rusty trucks!
A 3 day weekend of wanderings resulted in a number of topics for a posting, and a few random shots that weren’t enough for a single posting.
Jerome, Arizona – What was once a medium sized town for a large copper mine, the town went nearly extinct, but has returned to life as a tourist attractions as … a ghost town full of people.
Another mountain town is Superior – east of Phoenix.
Roosevelt Lake is located near the Tonto National Monument. The reservoir supplies water to Phoenix.
The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is located about 60 miles east of downtown Phoenix near the town of Superior. It has a great collection of regional plants, cactus and trees.
Sedona, Arizona is a well known as a town with numerous spas as well as artists, who all have gathered among the amazing red rocks. We passed through town on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and it was packed, taking away from the natural beauty.
The long weekend provided a great opportunity to explore the many historic dwellings that are scattered around Central Ariona.
We started at Montezuma’s Castle. The Europeans who first visited the remnants in the mid 1800s were mistakenly convinced that Montezuma had lived there, hence the name. This however is inaccurate – it is believed that Hopi, Yavapi and Hohokam lived here.
Nearby is Montezuma’s Well. Much like the Castle, it was the home to numerous local cultures. This natural limestone sinkhole produces 1.5 million gallons of water a day from an underground spring.
Tuzigoot Is a 3 story pueblo ruin at the summit of a ridge near Clarkdale, Arizona. It is very large, with 110 rooms, as a home for Sinagua people.
The final stop of the weekend was at Tonto National Monument. Home to Salado culture more than 800 years ago, it sets high up on a hill above what is now Roosevelt Lake.
RDZ Photography 