A Personal Amateur Photography Blog
A beautiful Sunday was the perfect time for a ride up Mt Lemmon.
First stop was Rose Lake, a reservoir high enough in elevation (7000′) that it is in a Ponderosa Pine forest.
A view from Windy Point. Even though it is only about 1000′ in elevation lower than Rose Lake, the look is very different.
Once you drop down below 4000′ you see the Saguaro and Brittle Bushes in bloom.
One of the great things about living in Tucson is you can have a nice warm 60 degree winter day and make the 25 mile drive up Mt Lemmon to snow!
This particular snow has not yet left enough snow for skiing, but it is getting close.
The road to the very top is always closed off for the winter, but it makes a great sledding hill.
The town of Summerhaven does a great business when the snow flies, and the road crews clear the road up the mountain.
As you make your way back down the mountain the snow gets less and less, until once you are under 6000′ elevation it is gone.
And before you know it you are back in the desert and 60 degrees.
An afternoon trip up Mt Lemmon to check out the leaves.
The late afternoon drive offered numerous shadowing shots.
A climber near Windy Point made her way to the top.
The views towards sunset caused dramatic effects.
We reached the valley floor just before sunset.
A quick trip through Saguaro National Park as the sun finally set.
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.
RDZ Photography 