Mount Lemmon, with a summit elevation of , is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is located in the Coronado National Forest north of

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive ...

, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for botanist 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.

Geography

Climate

Due to the elevation change from the bottom to the top, the summit of the mountain can be twenty to thirty degrees cooler than the base. It usually sees at least one snow fall during the winter months, 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), a stock exchange in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries * Bank of London and South America * La Bolsa, a town in Uruguay *Juan Bolsa, a character in the US TV series ''Breakin ...

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

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly ina ...

, 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 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. Its official program na ...

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 as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...

. Although the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

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 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

. 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, the Mount Lemmon Sky Center, the

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

Astronomy Camp program, the University of Arizona, and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. 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. 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.

Back side

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

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The wor ...

, 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 North American 2000 m summits