Snow Covered Christmas Trees On Mt. Lemmon, December 2011 — Image by kenne
Some of the recent postings chronicled my drive up to Mt. Lemmon after heavy snowfall last week. The above image serves as a cover to a slideshow of the photos I captured in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Given the season, having all these winter snow images reflect the white Christmas image we all have seen or carry as a mental image. Click here to see the show.
“Raven In The Snow” Mt. Lemmon, December 15, 2011 — Images by kenne
After 27″ of snow on Mt. Lemmon, I drove up Catalina Highwayto “capture the moment.” The mountain’s large trees were covered with snow, which gave the area a “winter wonderland” look. After leaving the car at one pull-off, I could hear a nosy raven high on a snow-covered pine. At first, I ignored him, having other images in mind. As I focused on various possible moments to capture, he kept telling me he was the moment. So, I started walking toward him, figuring he would just fly away. As my interested in him increased, I began to realize he was more interested in me than I in him — just love these birds!
On this beautiful snow-covered day, he had become my “Mt. Lemmon Greeter.”
Although the Coronado National Forest is closed because of the extremely dry conditions, the Catalina Highway to Summerhaven remains open. For the time being, the Sunday Music Series will continue to take place as scheduled. This past weekend, the Tucson based, Bad News Blues Band performed.
The music and cool mountain air (72 degrees) made for a very enjoyable afternoon. When we returned to the Catalina Foothills, the temperature was 101 — nice contrast!
Although we are experiencing some cool March weather in mid-May, our hiking has begun the assent to the upper elevations in the Santa Catalina mountains. Mt. Bigelow is 24 miles from Tucson at at 8,500 feet. This is a beautiful hiking area, which includes the remains of some of the area fires occurring about eight years ago. Most of our hiking will remain at the higher elevations in the mountains surrounding the greater Tucson area until late September.
As we head into the warmer days of summer, most of the hiking groups start taking to the higher elevations. Today’s hike was a move in the direction of Mt. Lemmon, which is where some of our hiking will be this summer. The Babad Do’ag (Tohono O’odham for “Frog Mountain”) trail off the Catalina Highway is a nice low-mid elevation hike, with quality views of the Tucson valley and the Rincon Mountains at the higher elevations — even on a very windy cool day like today.
