Goin' To The Mountain Top

Most people would be very surprised to learn that Tucson is virtually surrounded by mountains. When you fist move here, that’s how you get your bearings. You have to learn the following:

Santa Catalina Mountains=North
Santa Rita Mountains=South
Rincon Mountains=East
Tucson Mountains=West


http://www.visittucson.org/visitor/about/geography/

Yesterday, we went north into the Santa Catalinas. Most people here just call them the Catalinas. What most people don’t know is that those are MY mountains! Yes, my very, very own. But I share them with everybody else. ‘Cause I’m such a loving, kind and generous human bean.

Now, I’m going to share them with you.

First, a little dry data.

The elevation of Tucson is right around 3000 feet.
Where we’re headed, to Mt. Lemmon, way up in the Catalinas, is about 9000 feet. We will travel through 8 different ecological zones by the time we arrive at the Mt. Lemmon ski lodge. That’s right. I said ‘ski lodge.’ The southernmost ski lodge in the entire country is right up there on MY mountains! How cool is that!!!!

Got your seat belt fastened? Here we go.

This is where we begin. Hmmmmm. Doesn’t look real inviting or ‘mountain-y’, does it?

Just you wait!

This is a dead century plant. I told you about those in a previous blog entry. This one is probably about 15 feet tall. Yep, we’re still in a desert area…but not for long!


It still looks quite dry and barren and desert like but this gives us hope for what's to come.

I love all the craggy cliffs....
Last time we drove up here, I saw a man about half way up-or down-this cliff. It scared me just to see him looking all like Spider Man. I sure hope it made it back up-or down-safely!

And I love these weird looking rock formations...

They’re called hoodads! I just love that word!

HOODAD!!!

I took lots of pictures of HOODADS....I'll probably show you more another time.

Do you see the highway we just came up???? Yeh...at times it's kinda scary.


Good grief! Even up here, there’s construction! And what's that I see. Could it be, gasp, TREES!!

I hope this guy gets paid big, BIG bucks…’cause it’s a long way down from where he’s precariously perched on his overgrown Tonka Toy.

AHA! Look what we’ve found!!!!!!!!! Real, live, gigantic pine trees….like on a real mountain! Eureka!!!

We had terrible winds yesterday. But all that dust in the air, while sort of blurring things, also made the many layers of mountain ranges visible. If the air is really clear, they all just blend together and you don't realize the depth and breadth of these awesome mountains.

I have no idea what that blur is on the left. Remember, most of these pictures were taken from inside our moving vehicle. Places to safely pull off the road and stop to take perfectly framed pictures are few and far between.



A little color is beginning to show here and there.

We're almost at the top now and WOW! Just look at that!!! A pot of gold at the end of the highway!




A few years ago, there was a massive fire on Mt. Lemmon. So much was destroyed but it's growing back.

Almost the entire mountaintop community of Summerhaven was destroyed. It's being re-built, but it will never be the same....except for this...............

Very Special Mt.Lemmon fudge!!!!!!!!! OOOOOH Baby!!!!! This picture is a little blurry, but it is because I wasn't nearly as interested in taking a good photo as I was in cramming this delectable hunk of chocolate heaven in my drooling, salivating mouth! Yes! Every bite of it! All mine!!! This, I won't share. I'm not THAT good of a human bean.

I’m not sure how many photos I am going to be allowed to post on this here blog. So, I’m going to stop now…give it a try…and see what happens.
Stay tuned.
More to come.

I am grateful for MY beautiful mountains!!!!