We did an old trick to start our explorations of stuff around Tucson today. We got in the truck and went east, stumbling our way through places we have not seen previously. After 25 miles of driving on Tucson city streets, we turned off on the road to a place called Mount Lemmon. Not long after turning, we started climbing through some foothills with very fancy houses built on them before entering the Colorado National Forest.
The road climbs steadily from about 2500′ at the bottom through switchbacks and many turns to an elevation of over 8000′ near the top of Mount Lemmon. Alongside the road are many turnouts and viewpoints which is fortunate because the terrain is spectacular. In some places are grand vistas of Tucson, arroyos and distant mountain ranges. Other spots offer magnificent views of massive rock ridges, hoodoos and steep-sided chasms. There is even a pullout for a gorgeous group of waterfalls called 7 Cataracts located in a narrow stone gorge.
At the top end of the road we entered a town called Summerhaven which we guess was named because it is higher and cooler than Tucson below where the temperatures in the summer can be torrid. The area around Summerhaven and areas above about 6500′ were blanketed with a thin layer of snow. The road was good but it would be an extremely poor place to have brake problems. Once you start down, it is all downhill for about 20 miles.
We ended up our day by swinging in to Trader Joe’s and purchasing more food that is probably not very good for us but it sure is tasty.
We got some pix that you can see if you click here