Mount Lemmon Summerhaven Area

Author's Comments

There is something genuinely strange about driving an hour from a saguaro forest and arriving in an aspen grove. The Catalina Highway climbs through five ecosystems in roughly twenty-five miles, and by the time you reach Summerhaven the desert has been replaced entirely by Douglas fir and ponderosa, with aspens threaded through the drainages like a different idea altogether. In mid to late October, those aspens turn. Not all at once, and not predictably from year to year, but when they go they go gold against the dark conifers in a way that does not quite look like Arizona. I prefer the morning here. The light comes in low and sideways through the trees, and the aspens backlight beautifully if you position yourself to let them. The wider landscape shots are harder than they look. The forest is dense and the compositions tend to clutter unless you work for them. I have had better luck with detail work in Summerhaven than with wide views. A single trunk, a cluster of leaves still hanging, the texture of bark against the cooler greens behind. That kind of frame. The temperature drop is real. Tucson can be in the eighties while Summerhaven is in the fifties, and in late October you can find frost on the ground at first light. Bring layers you do not think you need. There is no fuel between the base and the top, which sounds like trivia until you are halfway down running on fumes. Top off before you start the climb.

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