John and Larry took off yesterday for places unknown. They mentioned a couple of places that they might like to visit, but if you ask for specifics things got a little bit fuzzy. I'm learning that that may be the correct way to travel. After their departure we cleaned up the trailer and just rested for the remainder of the day. I'm sorry but I have to brag on our weather for the past couple of weeks. Last week was in the 70's and this week we've hit 80+ every day. According to the local yokel weathermen our above average temp's will continue for the rest of the week. To escape the heat today (I never thought I would say that in February) we decided to drive up the Catalina Hwy to Mt. Lemmon. Somehow in all our years of visiting out here we'd never been up there.Mt. Lemmon is 9100 feet in elevation and is part of the Santa Catalina Mountains which tower above Tucson. Since Mt. Lemmon receives about 180 inches of snow per year there is a ski resort and a small village called Summerhaven. The drive from the desert floor to the summit is spectacular. You pass through several different climactic zones from saguaro and ocotillo on the foothills to pine and spruce trees at the top. In the brochure it mentions that it's like driving from Mexico to Canada. At the top we did see snow on the shaded side of the hills, but luckily none on the roadway. When we were at the summit the temp was 54 and an hour later on the desert floor the temp was 82. We stopped several times to take photo's of the views and had a picnic lunch at one of the lower campgrounds. We also took a short hike to get a better view of the north side but left Tipper in the truck since there were signs advising there might be bear in the area. Top Photo--Jamie and Tipper on Top of the World
Middle Photo--Saguaro on the hillside with Elephant Head about 75 miles away.
Bottom Photo--Van over the cliff
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