About five miles from our Cafe del Solveig, as the crow flies, rises Mount Lemmon, at 9,500 feet, the tallest peak in Arizona. We've enjoyed looking at its Catalina foothills since we've moved in, Saturday we drove to its summit.It takes about five hours from here to drive the round trip and tarry a bit on all the pullouts and wayside rests, but it is well worth it. The views are spectacular, the Catalina Highway is easy and the trip is often compared to a journey from Mexico to Canada because of the dramatic changes in the environment along the way.
The vegetation changes from desert saguaro to piney tundra at its peak. The summit has the usual ranger and weather stations and cellphone towers, of course, but then there is also a quirky village, which burned down recently in a forest fire and is being rebuilt with big bucks. It's called Summerhaven. We surmise that idlers fled there in summers past to avoid the scorching desert heat, hence the name.
There's also skiing on top of Mount Lemmon, but nothing that special. If you've skied the Rockies, well.. Mt Lemmon is bigger than Buck Hill, but it ain't no Breckenridge.What we didn't expect at the top of Mt. Lemmon was a quaint little restaurant called The Iron Door. We figured there might be hot dogs or sandwiches available for the ski bums there, and over-priced white linen for the few. No. Welcome to The Iron Door, where just about everything is $8.50 and the presentation is wonderful.
That's right, we sat beside a huge stone fireplace overlooking the city of Oracle miles below, had excellent table service, and the final bill came to $18.30.Stan had the Southwestern quiche, cup of vegetable soup, bread, cantaloupe slices, purple grapes, sliced strawberries, and green garnish.
Kathleen chose The Aspen Ridge, a hot ham and cheese sandwich, accompanied by hot German potato salad, grapes, strawberry and melon, with a cup of bright red beets that made her think of her mother.
We're big tippers, of course, particularly after having had such a good time so that brought the cost up. No beverage though. There's a wonderful wine menu and specialty beers, but we didn't order any because we don't take alcohol during Lent.
We definitely recommend this as a day trip next time you're in Tucson. The Catalina Highway is a little hard to find, they have a way of merging streets and changing their names that creates a challenge for newcomers. Ina becomes Skyline and Kolb miraculously becomes Sabino Canyon without any real notice. The mountain route is variously known as the Sky Island Scenic ByWay, The General Hitchcock Highway and the Catalina Highway. The trip up the mountain is 26 miles. The road is wide and climbs gently. The speed limit is 35, no passing is allowed and there are parking pullouts every quarter mile or so. There is a $5 entry charge per car for park services.
There are wonderful picnic areas and dozens of vistas for viewing each side of the mountain; a favorite stop featured young rock climbers at the Windy Point Vista, which made us think of our Jennifer in Hawaii who enjoys the sport.
We made friends along the way. Chatting with other day trippers at the rest stops. We met a family from Mexico at the Aspen Vista. He is an engineer who works for the state of Arizona building prisons in nearby Florence. She lives in Mexico City with their son, who was nearby discovering what snow is like. Gramma stuck close, she speaks no English.
The day was sunny and warm, but it could get chilly so bring a jacket. Next time we are going to time our descent with the setting sun. The twinkling lights of Tucson should be most spectacular.
