Santa Catalina Mountains Archives – Page 2 of 2

In November I hiked the Ventana Canyon Trail and climbed Window Peak in the Santa Catalina front range. This took me two attempts. On November 9 I hiked the Ventana Canyon Trail beyond its end to a scenic saddle on a ridge at about 6500 feet. I had hoped to climb Window Peak, but I ran out of time and energy to go that far and turned around after climbing 3600 feet. I returned two weeks later and succeeded.

Mount Kimball from the end of the Ventana Canyon Trail

The Ventana Canyon Trail ends at its junction with the Finger Canyon and Esperero Trails. I hiked Mount Kimball from Finger Rock Canyon a year and a half earlier and I savored the view of it rising far above me from this junction.

Our winter home in Tucson has a view of Mount Lemmon, the high point of the Santa Catalina Mountains to our north. Mount Lemmon has an elevation of 9157 feet, has 5157 feet of prominence, and rises about 6300 feet above our home. The General Hitchcock Highway (aka Catalina Highway) climbs from near its base in Tucson to Summerhaven. Near Summerhaven a side road climbs through Ski Valley and past a gate to the gated and fenced Sky Center. The General Hitchcock highway is a very popular bicycling route for local and visiting bicyclists. It is a great bicycling resource providing good workouts, fun descents, and excellent views of the Tucson Basin and surrounding mountains to the south.

Mount Lemmon from near home

Linda and I have bicycled up and down the highway to various destinations many times over recent years. We decided we should see how high we could ride this winter season as well and perhaps make it an annual winter project for us.

Window Peak, Arizona, November 2016

Bicycling Mount Lemmon, Winter 2016