Mt. Lemmon is a rare jewel in the
Arizona desert. Jutting up 9,000 feet above sea level in the Santa
Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, this magnificent mountain
peak stands amidst the pale backdrop of the sparse desert sand and
cactus. Visit Mount Lemmon.
The foothills of the Catalina Mountains
north of Tucson begins the hourlong journey to the top of the hill
known as Mt. Lemmon. As your car crawls, often only 25 miles per hour on
a winding two lane road, you are transported into a geological time
warp.
Mt. Lemmon is probably the most popular
getaway for Tucsonans and visitors, especially during the hot summer
when temperatures in the valley often remain over 100 degrees F. for
several months. It's no wonder that probably everyone who has lived or
stayed in the area has been to Mt. Lemmon at one time or another.
To some, it is a regular pilgrimage several times a year. From
the base of the mountain range, all the desert plant and wildlife
co-exist among the ever creeping metropolitan city limits. Saguaro
cactus abounds standing tall against the backdrop of the enormous
mountain range.
As you drive up the winding road, since
the construction for enlargement, you gain a sense of awe as you watch
the desert slowly turn into brush, then into an array of windblown rock
formations and finally into the midst of a deep forest of pine and fir.
If you visit in the winter, be sure to bring your ski equipment or snow
tires.
The busiest times to visit Mt. Lemmon
are weekends (of course) between 11am and 4pm. The earlier you arrive,
the better parking and picnic areas your find. Less travelled days are
weekend mornings and many weekdays.
Fees to Use Facilities:
The U.S. Forest Service now charges a fee for those who plan to travel
up the mountain. Residents and employees on the mountain are exempt from
the new fee. This fee is expected to help improve and preserve some of
the area, according to U.S. Forest Service reports. Mt. Lemmon passes
are $5 per day per vehicle. The annual pass is $20.
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Video Clips, Virtual Reality
Summerhaven and Mt. Lemmon Photos
Videos, pictures, links, shopping. Watch video clips and see new video photos of Mount Lemmon and Summerhaven!
What to do when you get to the top of the mountain. Stores, restaurants and sites to see.
The winter 2008-2009 snowfall season at Ski Valley. Hours, information and resources. RSS weather reports.
Continuously updated RSS weather reports on Mt. Lemmon and driving conditions from weather.com
Mt. Lemmon Internet links. Hiking spots, camping, Forest Service information, road conditions, etc.
Where is Tucson, Arizona?
Tucson, Arizona (approximately 2,400
feet above sea level) is just 60 miles north of the Mexico border and
about 150 miles south of the capital city, Phoenix- and about 500 miles
east of Los Angeles and the ocean). Tucson is one of the last of the
wild frontiers, being the oldest inhabited city in North America
(inhabited first by the Hohokam Indians around 100AD). The valley is
home to a half million people who dwell in this Southwestern U.S. desert
environment. Visit EMOL's Tucson Home Page with maps, history, current events and home pages for dozens of groups and businesses.
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More Photo Tours: Northern Arizona, Superstition Mtns., San Xavier Mission
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(c) 1998-2010. Entertainment Magazine All rights reserved.
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Check out what's on Sale at Camping
World! Hundreds of Items - Huge Savings. See the Sleep Number Bed at
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Jewelry and Rock Art from Mt. Lemmon
 Flint
Carter is one of the few artists who create their work from finding the
stones, cutting, polishing and fabricating. All jewelry and art work
materials are from Mt. Lemmon and the Santa Catalina Mountains.
With a large collection of high
grade ore that has been accumulated over the decades, he has fashioned
it into dozens of artist creations- jewlery, polished stones and desert
rock art. Read about Flint Carter's work, the legend of the Iron Door Mine and other stories of the Old Southwest. Call Flint at 520-289-4566 or email finder@emol.org.
by Mary Ellen Barnes (Author)
As you wind your way up
the Catalina Highway, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a first-time
visitor or a native Tucsonan; you know you’re on the way to someplace
special.
The Santa Catalina Mountains first captivated Tony
Zimmerman on a 1937 hunting trip. Regard for the alpine beauty must have
been in his genes—he was the son of Swiss German immigrants—and by 1940
the Tucson schoolteacher had begun taking his family to Mount Lemmon to
spend the summer. Back then, the road up the mountain was a rough
two-track dirt road from Oracle, and Summerhaven was nothing but a
sleepy cluster of summer cabins. But Tony Zimmerman was to help change
all of that.
The Road to Mount Lemmon is a beguiling memoir of the
Catalina Mountains told by the daughter of one of the pioneers in the
life and development of Mount Lemmon’s communities. Mary Ellen Barnes
tells how her father Tony resigned from teaching in 1943 to devote his
career to the development of this mountain oasis. He not only sold real
estate for long time landowner Randolph Jenks, he even bought the
village’s tiny two-room store, installing a sawmill to build a larger
store, and built the Mount Lemmon Inn. And as she spins Tony’s personal
saga, she also gives readers a glimpse of the Catalinas before Tucson
became a boom town, recalling idyllic adventures in wild country and the
cowboys, rangers, ranchers, and loggers who worked there.
Product Details
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: University of Arizona Press (June 11, 2009)
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Squeezing the Lemmon II
...more juice
than ever
A rock climber's guide to
the Mt. Lemmon Highway, Tucson, Arizona, by Eric Fazio-Richard. 324
pages. Publisher: E Squared Enterprises; 1st ed edition (2000)
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Frog Mountain Blues
(Paperback)
by Charles Bowden,
Jack W. Dykinga (Photographer)
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Man Climbing Rock at Sunset, Mt. Lemmon, AZ
College Photographic Poster Print by Greg Epperson, 16x12
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Southern Arizona's Santa Catalina Mountains (Map)
by Frank Lister
Publisher: Guia Roji SA de CV; 1 edition (April 1, 1999)
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(Paperback)