Mount Lemmon & Friends

Mount Lemmon sits high above the north side of Tucson, standing guard as the highest point in the Santa Catalina sky island. With a ski area that qualifies as the farthest south in the United States, amazing rock climbing, and plenty of beautiful trails, it is a wonder I haven't explored this range sooner. Certainly one to come back to, even if it is a slog down the interstates from Flagstaff.

Getting There

On my self-appointed zero day of spring break (March 5), I set out from Flagstaff with a skeleton of a plan for the coming week and a half. First on the list was Lemmon. Starting the directions from Tucson, I took the appropriately-named Mount Lemmon Highway up the southeastern face of the Catalinas. It's a beautiful drive on a two-lane paved highway all the way up to the community of Summerhaven. I camped at 32.452701, -110.751650 (the first switchback going down FR38, a dirt road that requires mid-clearance), having arrived in the dark. Wind was high, maybe around 14 to 16 mph throughout the night.

Summerhaven has a couple options for hotel-style overnight stays and a general store for beer and other goodies. The ski area also has a restaurant that is supposedly okay, but seemed to be expensive. I did not eat here.

If you're only interested in doing Mount Lemmon proper, park at the trailhead coordinates in the article header. This parking lot requires either a day use fee or a Parks Pass. If you don't want to feed more money to the government than you already do, there is another large parking area back down the road a couple hundred yards that is free.

Route

I would highly recommend doing/hiking more than just Mount Lemmon itself, since getting from the TH to the top only took me 14 minutes and the drive was nearly four times that from Tucson.

Beyond (and including) Mount Lemmon, the other peaks I logged on Peakbagger were, in order of ascent:

1. Summerhaven Benchmark
2. Radio Ridge
3. Pusch Ridge Wilderness High Point
4. Mount Lemmon
5. Lemmon Rock Lookout

Summerhaven Benchmark happened to be essentially next to my campsite, so just straight up the hill from the Oracle Ridge Arizona Trail trailhead (no trail to the top).

Radio Ridge and Pusch Ridge Wilderness HP were on the same short run from the aforementioned free parking lot along a gated service road.

Mount Lemmon and Lemmon Rock Lookout were done as part of the Mount Lemmon Trail #5 to Meadow Trail loop that seemed to be popular with other hikers.

Elevation vs Time

Elevation vs Distance

Mt Lemmon GPS Track (only Mt Lemmon & Lemmon Rock LO)

The GPS track this time only shows the loop from Mount Lemmon to Lemmon Rock LO and back. The other two hikes weren't substantial enough for me to display the track here. As always, I do have all three GPX files if you the reader would like them. I did also try out CalTopo's feature of adding directional arrows to the track; it doesn't look like it turned out very clearly so I'll abstain from doing this again in the future.

The Trip

Thursday Night

I arrived to my campsite on Thursday night in the dark and wind. The final light had dissipated as I had driven up the Lemmon Highway, which did provide some amazing sunset views. It seemed the road was a popular sunset spot since every pullout was full and every rock formation just off the road was topped with couples having a romantic night out. Couldn't be me though, I was on a mission (and I'm single). The turnout I camped on was secluded from the masses, but was buffeted by the eastern winds. I felt as though I was in a hammock being swung about, and was mildly concerned that something of mine would get lost to the gales if I wasn't careful. Instead of making dinner outside the truck like I normally do with my Coleman propane stove, I opted for an indoor meal of cold canned soup. Having closed up the truck, I went to bed since tomorrow I had an early start.

My campsite on Thursday night.

Friday Morning

Summerhaven Benchmark

With an early start (for me that's 7AM), I packed up the truck and drove the couple hundred yards to the AZT Oracle Ridge TH. I hiked a short way along the established trail before deciding I didn't want to go down in elevation as far as it was taking me and turned right to go straight up the brushy slope. This was a steep bugger, but pretty short. There were a couple spots of route finding around some boulder piles, but the least enjoyable part was the abundant catclaw. Catclaw is a plant with literal catclaws for thorns: sharp, curved, and painful. There were some pretty views from the top of Mount Lemmon and the land to the north, but nothing to write home about (except I am, right now). Found all three survey markers (benchmark, reference mark 1, and reference mark 2 - I later neglected to look for the azimuth mark along the road, oops).

SUMMERHAVEN benchmark - 1936!

SUMMERHAVEN Reference Mark 2 - I found RM1 too, but no Azimuth!

For the way down, I decided I did not want to return down that hellscape of a slope, and instead walked the ridge down away from the trailhead to a small saddle that was much easier walking back down to the trail.

Overlook of the ridge route I took down.

Total time was 37 minutes and total distance was 0.82 miles with 292 feet of elevation gain.

Radio Ridge & Pusch Ridge Wilderness High Point

View of Radio Ridge/Pusch Ridge Wilderness HP from its TH.

Parking in the free lot past Summerhaven, this was a quick run past the closed gate on a service road. Couldn't find the benchmarks that the USGS said was there (typical). You do walk right past the top of one of the chair lifts, so I stopped for a minute and sat down on the top chair imagining what it would look like with snow. It's still crazy to me how this ski resort even stays open, since as mentioned before it is the farthest south resort in the USA.

Looking over the Mt Lemmon Ski Area from the top of the chairlift.

Total time on this one was 18 minutes with a mileage of 0.66 and elevation gain of 108 feet.

Mount Lemmon & Lemmon Rock Lookout

Now comes the biggin': Mount Lemmon proper. Except first I had my graduate seminar class, so I was the guy in the woods eating his camp stove oatmeal on Zoom from 9 to 10. Starlink was making itself useful here, until the signal died and my Zoom cut off around 9:50. I didn't need to see the presenter talk for any longer anyway, so there.

I started up the trail from the paid parking lot around 10. The path quickly reaches a saddle where you can go left on the trail, or you can go right onto what's left of Mount Lemmon Highway. The road is where the peak is, so I chose right to start.

Just a couple hundred yards up the road is a large gate and fence around the "compound" of telescopes up on the peak. Mount Lemmon is one of the many active observatories in Arizona, and apparently does open stargazing for the public some nights. If I had known, I would have participated, but I only found out after the fact. Oh well, I do see myself coming back to this range eventually.

The pesky no-entry gate to the Mt Lemmon Observatory and Belle being upset about it

Having sternly told the gate that it couldn't stop me, I dove off the right side of the road down to where I could see a little beaten singletrack. From Peakbagger, I knew others followed the trail along the outside of the razor wire fence and around to a point outside the fenceline that currently serves as the summit. I turned a little early up the hill off the track and crossed a downed part of the fence, popping me out right next to one of the telescopes and also right next to another shiny black Jeep (wild how these Jeeps appear). Seeing no human presence, I continued the final few yards to where there was a human sized gate in the fence allowing access from the compound to the summit area.

Understandably, there were tons of signatures in the coffee can-sized register. I found the CATALINA 2 RESET benchmark, but none of the others still existed even though USGS, again, said they did. I wandered around the one telescope for a bit hoping these BMs would materialize, but to no avail. I continued back the way I came, having come and gone without seeing another soul.

The CATALINA 2 RESET benchmark, marking the top of Mt Lemmon.

View of multiple telescopes from the Mt Lemmon summit

Next on my list was Lemmon Rock Lookout. To get there, you have to take the left fork at the saddle instead of the right one, so down the left I went. Literally down. You drop a few hundred feet in elevation to reach the promontory where the old lookout hut sits. On the way down, I came across a tree that looked to be infected with some sort of fungus. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know. I haven't done my due diligence to figure out what it is yet.

The unidentified tree fungus

Everything is easy trail walking right up to the point you have to climb 33 concrete steps as the final push. Having lived on the fourth floor with no elevator my previous academic year, I have a well-developed hatred for stairs when a nice ramp would do just as well.

The 33 stairs to the Lemmon Rock Lookout. The bane of my existence.

The lookout itself looks like it's still manned during fire season, and what a lucky guy he is. There were connections for power and internet as well as what looked like some sort of water system since there's a corrugated metal box with showerhead and handle outside the front door. Not to mention the beautiful view of Mica Mountain, Mount Wrightson, and many others all across southern AZ.

Lemmon Rock Lookout - note the metal box, that's the shower!

View down into Tucson from the lookout.

View of Baboquivari (left) and Kitt Peak (right) from Lemmon Rock

View of Dos Cabezas (the Two Heads) from Lemmon Rock LO (zoomed in 8x)

View of Mt Graham from Lemmon Rock LO

View of Mt Wrightson (left) from Lemmon Rock (Saturday's goal!)

I spent a good long while up at the lookout, just sitting on the rocks enjoying the sunny yet cool day. That was until Belle started barking, telling me someone was coming up the trail and I should go see who it was. Turns out it was an older couple from Pennsylvania who now hold the honor of being the first people to be upset that Belle was not on a leash.

To be clear for all those who think I'm so evil, I keep her close with the electronic collar and normally she doesn't even bark when someone comes by. She comes on command, and listens well. She's not the type to bum-rush a stranger. And I neither have the energy nor the patience to maintain a six foot leash where one end is a dog that just wants to sniff everything and pull every which way and the other is a huffing and puffing out-of-shape dude in his 20s. Also to be clear, I understand people's hesitation with an off leash dog. But then again, there are plenty of dogs trained better than some people's kids, so leave me be.

Anyway, the wife kept "whispering" to her husband about how I didn't have Belle on a leash so I pulled one out and roped her up (the dog, not the wife). They stayed for a couple minutes, remained visibly afraid of the rabid coyote on the leash the entire time, then continued on to their next destination. I waited a while until I could no longer hear nor see them before I moved on. I released Belle as we started our way back (and when I started wheezing again going uphill).

Looking back at Lemmon Rock

After reaching a little flat spot on the ridge, I examined the map more. It was still early, and I didn't want the day to go to waste. An outbuilding appeared to be only about a quarter mile down this service road right below me and I was curious what it was for. Up this road another hundred yards, I came across another man walking his abomination (a doodle). He had his on a leash, so I put Belle back on the tether. They did the dog meet and greet for a minute while I asked the guy where he came from. He talked about a Meadow Trail that you can use to turn my route into a loop around the top of the main Lemmon ridge, only a couple miles longer. I thanked him for the new beta and then we parted ways.

The mysterious metal building. What secrets do you hold? How much fluoride is in this water?

The aforementioned outbuilding turns out to be some sort of structure involving a spring which came out right below the road. Not knowing what was happening to the water inside the locked concrete hut, I sensibly took a few handfuls of clear-looking water from the catch basin and tried it (disclaimer: don't actually ever do this unless you know the origin of the water, I am what they call a "trained professional"). I did not get sick, and nothing tasted off, so I call that a win.

Mmmm...tasty

After the spring, I cautiously released the pup again as I could see there were no pesky individuals for some distance. At the intersection of this road (actually Mount Lemmon Trail #5) and Meadow Trail, I debated continuing on straight since there were a couple other rock-featurey peaks that might've been interesting. Instead, I left those for a future trip and turned up the Meadow Trail.

Some of the cool rock features where I turned down the siren's call to climb them

This trail climbs via some switchbacks up to the top of the Mount Lemmon ridge where it does, in fact, go through some meadows. Some nice views to the south again from up here, but nothing I hadn't seen already. As the meadow turns back into the pines, it gets nice and shady. Here we encountered another youngish couple, and again I harnessed the dog. From here on I just kept her on the lead since we were getting close to the trailhead and I knew there'd be a ton more people now that it was the middle of the day on Friday.

The trail parallels along the opposite side of the compound from Mount Lemmon proper, and one little side enclosure was signed as being owned by the US Air Force. Once reaching the trailhead again, there was a ton of people and cars. I arrived at the perfect storm of multiple large families arriving, disembarking their cars, and then absolutely making no progress on getting on with their hike. Instead they all chose to loiter the area for at least an extra 15 minutes while I packed up the dog and my gear before slowly crawling into my driver seat and trying to pull up my next destination.

Total mileage for Mount Lemmon/Lemmon Rock Lookout Loop was 2.78 miles with 645 feet of gain in 1 hour and 38 minutes.

Friday Afternoon

On the way down, I stopped at the Mount Lemmon General Store to see what the deal was. The entire community was quaint, many rich people's summer (winter?) homes plus two lodging options, one restaurant option, the general store, and a bread place. Funnily enough, the store had Moose Drool (a beer local to my hometown in Montana) in stock so I bought a six pack plus a couple pieces of homemade fudge to go.

I attempted to access the Marshall Gulch trailhead, but it was under some heavy construction and I don't think it'll be open for a long while. Marshall Gulch is where you're supposed to do the Arizona 20-20 Challenge start, if you wish to do the hard way. Maybe on a return trip I'll take that way.

The drive down was just as pretty as the drive up, though with the added downside of the grandma going ten under in front of me. There are no passing zones on this road, and I dealt with burning my brakes behind this van for the majority of the way down. I did briefly stop at the open Palisades Visitor Center which has some information about the flora and fauna of the area as well as camping info for those who want a more developed experience. There are a multitude of campgrounds along the drive, none of which compared to camping for free, but to each their own.

After exiting the Santa Catalinas, I beelined straight to Opa's Best Greek American Cuisine for my favorite gyro in Tucson. From there, it was a short but beautiful drive out to the Madera Canyon Trailhead for my Mount Wrightson hike on Saturday and the end of my Friday. Spring Break 2026 Day 1 in the books!

Belle wishing you a goodnight from Madera Canyon!