Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024: Day 4 – My Visit up Mount Lemmon

Ever since getting into iFit and following Yuri Hauswald on his Couch to 40K series of workouts, I’ve wanted to visit some of the places in Arizona he rode his bike through.

One of those places was Mount Lemmon. So the major tourist attraction for the day was driving up the 9,000 foot mountain.

Mount Lemmon is a mountain in the Santa Catalina Mountains of Arizona, known for its skiing, hiking, and other recreational activities.

For me it would be known for driving as well.

The road up Mount Lemmon is called Catalina Highway.

It is also known as the Mt Lemmon Highway and it has scenic overlooks, campgrounds, picnic areas, and hiking trails along the route.

I didn’t do a lot of hiking on this occasion, but I got my steps in!

The road starts at around 3,000 feet and ends at the top of Mount Lemmon at about 9,200 feet.

The 30-mile drive began at Tanque Verde Road in Tucson, and it started pretty flat.

The early parts of the road had been laid with new tarmac.

They didn’t need to do that just for me, but I appreciated it!

My first vista stop was Babad Do’ag Overlook, which impressed with a view of Tucson in the distance.

Apparently, it’s not a bad place for the sun setting over Tucson.

There are numerous vistas sign posted a quarter of a mile ahead. They almost always end up with a fab view of the surrounding scenery.

Thimble Peak vista was the next one for me.

When I started driving up Catalina Highway, the traffic was relatively light. After I stopped at the first couple of vista points, I noticed that the amount of traffic heading up Mount Lemmon had increased significantly.

Families were clearly heading up there for the day. Their definition of the day wasn’t likely to be the same as mine, nor when their day actually started compared to mine.

However, it did make me decide that it might be prudent to get to the top and tick off some of these vista stops on the way down. I therefore became a bit pickier as I continued up the road.

At the end of the county-maintained road, I arrived at Mount Lemmon Ski Valley, where I parked up.

This appeared to be a visitor hub, with a gift shop, a restaurant and at the time I was there, they had OktoberFest on the go!

I didn’t need any beer, but I did pay for tickets to take the Sky Ride to the top.

I had to stand in front of the Sky Ride as it swung around and as it approached me, I sat down on it, and there was a safety bar that dropped over the top of my head to ensure I was secure.

That also acted as a place for my feet to rest. Classic ski lift based on my vague memories of skiing.

It took just over 15 mins to reach the East Cap Trail Run, which offered some amazing views.

I wandered around here for a bit and came across the road that carries on up from Ski Valley, so I headed back down the Sky Ride, picked up my car, and drove up the narrower section of road.

As it happened, I couldn’t drive too much further up the road. It leads to the Steward Observatory and plebs like me are not allowed in.

However, I found a place to park and I walked around the observatory on a trail and found another amazing viewpoint.

After all the talk about getting to the top and then stopping at some of the other vista points on the way back down, I actually didn’t stop once.

I got into a convoy of muscle cars heading down Catalina Highway at a decent speed. I was now focused on getting something to eat and a burger was on the agenda.

There were a few things I still had to do for the day: check in to my last hotel, get something to eat, get some fuel and finally drop off the rental car.

The DoubleTree Suites at the airport was my final resting spot before heading home the following day.

I decided to drive up to Inn-n-Out Burger a few miles away, not far from the Starbucks I had been frequenting.

I was impressed again, by the quality of the food and the taste of the shake.

I followed that by a visit to the gas station next to the burger place, and I popped in to Starbucks on the way back to the airport to pick up my coffee for the morning.

I came up with an idea of chilling my coffee overnight, then warming it up in the microwave in the morning.

That was my only way of getting a Starbucks without a car before my first flight to Los Angeles.

After dropping off the car, I walked back to the hotel in the extreme heat and prepared for the start of my trip home in the morning.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Tucson in Oct 2024