Mount Lemmon, with a summit elevation of , is the highest point in the

Santa Catalina Mountains The Santa Catalina Mountains, commonly referred to as the Catalina Mountains or the Catalinas, are north and northeast of Tucson in Arizona, United States, on Tucson's north perimeter. The mountain range is the most prominent in the Tucson area, w ...

. It is located in the

Coronado National Forest The Coronado National Forest is a United States National Forest that includes an area of about 1.78 million acres (7,200 km2) spread throughout mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. It is located in parts of ...

north of

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Sara Plummer Lemmon, who trekked to the top of the mountain with her husband and E. O. Stratton, a local rancher, by horse and foot in 1881. Mount Lemmon is also known as Babad Do'ag, or Frog Mountain to the Tohono O'odham. It is home to the southernmost ski destination in the continental United States.

Geography

Climate

Due to the elevation change from the bottom to the top, the summit of the mountain can be 20–30°F cooler than the base. It typically sees from 10 to 20 inches of monthly snowfall during the winter, making it a cool escape and popular tourist attraction for Tucson inhabitants.

Geology

Mount Lemmon is made up of

Bolsa Quartzite Bolsa or Pelota may refer to *Bolsa de Valores (disambiguation) Bolsa de Valores (often shortened to Bolsa), Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ''Stock Exchange'', can refer to: *B3 (stock exchange), B3, São Paulo; ...

, Dripping Spring Quartzite, and a local sandstone and conglomerate. The portions have been intruded by a

Diabase Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-gra ...

Dike of the Apace Group.

Summerhaven

Summerhaven is a small town near the top of the mountain. It is a summer residence for many, but there are some year-round residents. There are many small cabins, most of which were rebuilt after the Aspen Fire of July 2003.

Mount Lemmon Station Observatory

At the peak is the

Mount Lemmon Observatory Mount Lemmon Observatory (MLO), also known as the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory, is an astronomy, astronomical observatory located on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains approximately northeast of Tucson, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (U ...

, which was formerly the site of a USAF radar base of the

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for air defense of the continental United States. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air De ...

, and the building that formerly housed a military emergency radar tracking station for landing the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...

. Although the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

had a presence on the mountain for several decades all their facilities have been abandoned and were given to the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

. The area and buildings that makes up the Mount Lemmon Station Observatory are leased from the Forest Service by the University of Arizona. The telescopes on the mountain are still used for astronomical research today by organizations such as the

Catalina Sky Survey Catalina Sky Survey (CSS; obs. code: 703) is an astronomical survey to discover comets and asteroids. It is conducted at the Steward Observatory's Catalina Station, located near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. CSS focuses on the searc ...

, the Mount Lemmon Sky Center, the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

Astronomy Camp program, the University of Arizona, and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. The educational resources at the top of the mountain make it a unique research and teaching destination.

Catalina Highway

The Catalina Highway, also called the Mount Lemmon Highway, as well as the Hitchcock Highway (after Frank Harris Hitchcock), runs up the Santa Catalina Mountains from the east side of Tucson up to Summerhaven, at the top of Mt. Lemmon. The beautiful, curving road is a favorite drive for tourists, for locals escaping summer's heat and cyclists, and has been recently designated as the ''Sky Island Parkway'', part of the US

National Scenic Byway A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for one or more of six "intrinsic qualities": archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic. The program was established by Co ...

system. The year 2010 saw the inaugural running of the Mount Lemmon Marathon.

Fees and permits

Catalina Highway charges tolls for parking, camping, and hiking. However, the tolls are only officially charged for people who are camping. Tolls for other events, such as hiking, parking, or grilling, are a part of the honor system. Park rangers will not check for toll payments unless someone is using the park campgrounds. Anyone wishing to sightsee or travel to Summerhaven are not subjected to paying tolls. Scenic View from Mount Lemmon

Back side

An unpaved road to the summit on the north side of Mount Lemmon starts in

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

, which is on Arizona Route 77 north of Tucson. It offers a secondary route to the top. This route is popular with off-road 4x4 drivers and with off-road or dual-purpose motorcyclists. This road ends at the Catalina Highway near Loma Linda. Before the Catalina Highway was built it was the only route up the mountain. File:Hoodoos,_Santa_Catalina_Mountains.jpg, Hoodoos, Santa Catalina Mountains File:Remnants_of_the_2003_Aspen_Fire.jpg, Remnants of the 2003 Aspen Fire File:Mount_Lemmon_Ski_Valley.jpg, Mount Lemmon Ski Valley File:Cabins_atop_Mt_Lemmon_in_Summerhaven.jpg, Cabins atop Mt Lemmon in Summerhaven File:(140) Mountlemmonobservatory.JPG, View of the telescopes on Mount Lemmon File:Oracle AZ Mt Lemmon.JPG, View of Mount Lemmon from Oracle, AZ File:Backside.jpg, Unpaved road on the north or "backside" of Mount Lemmon File:SkyIslandPkwy.JPG, Catalina Highway climbing Mount Lemmon File:Stereograph_-Mount_Lemmon_Highway.jpg, Stereograph of the Mt Lemmon Highway near Windy Point Vista.

References

External links

* *
NOAA "Mount Lemmon Forecast"
* {{Authority control Santa Catalina Mountains Geography of Tucson, Arizona Lemmon Landforms of Pima County, Arizona Mountains of Pima County, Arizona Two-thousanders of the United States