Mount Lemmon is named after Sarah Lemmon, a botanist who reached the summit in 1881.
Yesterday we drove up to the Catalina Mountains, a short drive north of Tucson. It depends how far you go along the Catalina Highway: we travelled about 30 miles from Kate and Chidi's place and within that short space: " so great is the range of vegetation and climate along the way, that a trip into the Santa Catalina Mountains has been likened to a trip from Mexico to Canada"(National Geographic: Traveller Arizona. 2nd ed, 2005). You rise from the desert and ranks of Saguaro to cool pine forests at an altitude of over 8000 feet in the space of 10-15 miles. The enormous rock formations make for incredibly dramatic views, tempting us to stop and snap away with our digital cameras.
Kate's aunt used to own a cabin on Mount Lemmon, and Kate, in the first of our two cars, zipped off over the rapidly ascending, curling road like a homing pigeon, while I staidly drove steadily within the speed limits as I got used to driving an automatic car. We stopped at a place called Marshall's Gulch, close to Summerhaven, and ate the sandwiches Chidi had made, shivering a little despite the bright sunshine, in the nippy, pine scented wind. Afterwards we walked up the trail through the pine forest, alongside a stream for about a mile, and then ascended further up the mountainside for another half mile or so, until we arrived at what we thought might be a reasonable summit (Kate, Chidi and the girls stayed down by the stream and returned to the car before us, so we didn't want to spend a long time on our trek). Mount Lemmon suffered a terrible forest fire in 2003 which devastated this area, and you can see stands of burnt trees and curiously beautiful charcoal black trunks, faceted and glittering like black diamonds. It was a beautiful, easy trek, and James, Oksy and I were very pleased with it.
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