University of Arizona

Sense of Place

Geos. 195D

Mt. Lemmon

Map of Catalina Highway

Mt. Lemmon is one of the great sites and trips of Tucson.

User Fee to Drive the Highway

A user fee is charged to drive the Mt. Lemmon Highway and stop to hike and/or picnic or do whatever to enjoy the mountain. There are various pros and cons to user fees. Some recent voices on this subject:

Global Change and Stacked Ecosystems of the Sky Islands

Arizona is rightly known as the "Grand Canyon State," but Southern Arizona can be just as reasonably dubbed the "Sky Island State." The Catalina Highway allows a close-up look at Sky Island biogreography, namely, stacked ecosystems. With changing elevation, ecosystems themselves change, from Sonoran Desert down low to Rocky Mountain subalpine forest on top.

Fire on the Mountain

A large fire called the Bullock burned parts of Mt. Lemmon in 2002, and other parts were burned in 2003 in the Aspen fire. Here's an image of the Aspen burn area up close:

Aspen burn
Photo credit — Jayme Kelter

Snow on the Mountain

It snowed the day of the April 2007 SOP trip. Unusual, but not unheard of, even for Southern Arizona. Here's a shot of the remnant snow at Palisades Ranger Station, about 8,000 ft. elevation:

snow at Palisades
Photo credit — Paul Sheppard

Team Photo, 2008

2008 team photo on Catalina Mt. trip
Photo credit — Tone Eckvedt

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Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
Main Office: (520) 621-1608, Fax: (520) 621-8229
Comments to Paul Sheppard: sheppard @ ltrr.arizona.edu