Mt. Lemmon and Summerhaven

Drive 30 miles into the Santa Catalina Mountains on the Catalina Highway, and you will reach 9,157 feet at the top of Mt. Lemmon. This scenic byway takes one from the Saguaro-studded desert floor to a beautiful forest of pines, aspens, and firs. “How many pictures of rocks do we need?”
Summerhaven, a quaint village near the top of Mt. Lemmon and a longtime Tucson favorite, suffered severe fire damage in 2003. Over 300 homes and nine businesses were destroyed. The tent-draped Café is the only business that survived. You will want to stop there for lunch but save room for a piece of delicious, over-the-top, homemade rhubarb-strawberry pie, Jerry’s favorite. There are houses built straight up the sides of the mountain. How people live in this vertical life zone is a mystery to us. Surely most of them leave before the winter snow and ice arrive.