Hiking Mt. Lemmon

Mt. Lemmon is the highest peak of the Catalina Mountains here in Tucson. This mountain range runs along the Northeast side of the city, and is visible from both Greg's house and my apartment. In fact, from where we both live, it's as though you can reach out and touch these mountains (even though they are actually quite far away). We decided that it would be a good idea to escape the heat of Tucson, even though we were expecting a cool front to come through, bringing with it highs in the lower 90's. We would be experiencing 70-ish degree weather at about 8,000 feet.

It takes about 1.5 hours to get from Greg's house, through the city and up to the small town located on Mt. Lemmon. Here, there are numerous trails for visitors to hike at their leisure. We visited this peak just over a year ago, on my first visit to Tucson, and decided to take a different trail this trip. It was a perfect day for hiking, and we did about 6 miles total. Both of us received a great workout, as many places were extremely steep or had very long, drawn-out inclines.
Here are some pictures from the hike:

This is a view along the Mint Springs trail, looking towards the little town of Summerhaven. Sadly, a pretty bad fire took place in 2003, burning many of the trees and destroying many homes in the area. A lot of the homes have since been rebuilt. Here, you can see the trees that are blackened and dead, yet to have fallen to the grown.

A little farther up the mountain...looking back at the trail we covered (see, there is a lot of green in Arizona!!):

Isn't this a cute little fern? Apparently, after a forest fire, these little plants populated the ground surrounding the dead trees. Greg and I chatted about this phenomenon, and came up with hypotheses as to why this happens. We wondered if this overgrowth slowed the rebirth of trees, or if it provided the nutrients needed for the renewal of the forest. Hmm....

Whew! We made it to the top of the mountain! Taking a little break before beginning the decent down Aspen Trail. We munched on trail mix and gulped Powerade. Yumm!

Not long after we started hiking again, we came across this horny toad:

And then this little lizard...we tried to make it move by tossing pebbles at it and it didn't even budge....

This is a pretty incredible view to the East of the Catalinas. Obviously, this picture doesn't do justice. Just take my word for it....As you can see, the trees are a lot healthier on this side of the mountain:

Aren't these cute? Little baby pine trees! Some day, they will become incredibly tall, towering over the wildlife below, becoming home to many creatures. We saw a lot of these along this trail, so cute and small....

Awww, Greg found a flower for me! What a sweetheart....

And so I put it in my hair:

Towards the end of the trail, we came upon this beautiful tree. At first, I thought it was a lilac tree, but wasn't quite sure when I came closer. Maybe it is? Whatever it is, I thought it was simply beautiful. Don't you think?

After finishing our hike, we went to the Cookie Cabin for a little snack. They serve freshly baked cookies and made to order pizza. We split a cookie and a pizza (eating dessert first, of course!), both which really hit the spot.

It really was the perfect day for a hike.