Zang on the Fourth of July

Hat to Mr. Silverstein, for inspiring this post.

Scottsdale, about to leave for Mount Lemmon Lodge in Summerhaven, Arizona

First you drive south on the Interstate (technically East on I-10) to Tucson and pick your way through the north part of the city on local roads for a half hour until you get to the edge of the city at the base of the Catalina Mountains. There is a single road that continues past there and it begins slowly winding up into the mountains past the ample saguaro groves that poke out from the rocky terrain. One goes up and up winding slowly with vistas of the city at pull outs. Then the saguaros trickle off, as it is too high in altitude for them. Climbing further, one sees down the cliffs to the ravines and rock formations. One is usually passing bicyclists in groups either climbing or descending. 

Finally one reaches the trees. All of a sudden one is in the pines. It feels like coming home each time. There are national forest picnic grounds and trail heads where cars are gathered, their occupants presumably on the nearby trail. One continues climbing and finally at eight thousand feet, six thousand above the valley floor (and at the altitude of Estes Park), one finds signs of civilization. There is a turnoff that goes to the top of the mountain proper, but following the road takes you into the community of Summerhaven, where the most prominent landmark one enters is the fire station, a reminder of devastating fire of twenty years ago that almost burned down the entire community, and from which the not-yet-regrown patches on the mountain are still visible. There is a restaurant, and a few gift shops. One continues past a small group of nice cottages for rent, somewhat amusingly called the Mount Lemmon Hotel, and then at last one reaches the Mount Lemmon Lodge, rebuilt only a few years ago after the historic century-old original burned down in the aforementioned fire. The new one looms above the road. Across the street is the general store which is the heart of the community at this point, and which is also worth a visit. Further down, if one were to continue past the lodge, there is a pizza/cookie restaurant with outdoor seating, and going further one could leave the thick part of the community and eventually dead end at a trailhead that leads into the gulch.

When I first came to Tucson while swinging through Arizona in 1989, my uncle told me about Mt. Lemmon and how by going up it, it is as if one goes north a thousand miles to the Canadian border, in terms of ecosystem and climate. It is probably the best known example of what they call a "sky island" (there are evidently such things in the Sahara too). I was intrigued, and years later, in February 2013, when I came through here on my own while vagabonding in the Bimmer, and visited my uncle again, I made sure to go to the top where I snowshoed at the ski resort there---the furthest south I've ever snowshoed. 

I haven't been up in winter since then. I told Jessica about it, and after our first visit, she eagerly makes reservations as much as possible, including for the Fourth of July two years running, as soon as they open up. Last year we had the corner room on the 3rd floor which allowed the best viewing of the 4th of July parade.

A front came through last night here in Scottsdale. I thought it would be a dust storm and I cleared off the patio and brought the rice paper screen and my library books inside, as I keep them out on the table there. Dust storms can be a menace here, and can be hazardous to health. Instead we got rain and it smelled fresh this morning as I drank my coffee.

It might rain while we are up at Mt. Lemmon. Evidently they got a bunch last night. The streams really flow and it feels like heaven when they do, but even if they don't it will be lovely. I will sit on the balcony outdoors and look across at the mountain, seeing the houses hidden among the trees on the steep hill, and the onion dome of the Byzantine Catholic chapel of the small compound of Our Lady Undoer of Knots, the bells of which are rung on a daytime schedule. I will fantasize as ever about what it would be like to live up here. I'd probably never want to go down to the valley floor. But of course there are dental visits.