Mike Breiding's Epic Road Trips: March 2025

Mt Lemmon

Santa Catalina Mountain

Hiking the Mt Lemmon Loop with 3Sixty Bruce

27 March 2025
Hiking the Mt Lemmon Loop with 3Sixty Bruce

Tucson hiking buddy 3Sixty Bruce mentioned a hike several times he called the "Mt. Lemmon Loop".

Now, nearing the end of my stay in Tucson, I finally arranged to meet Bruce and check out the hike. This was good timing—the temps were going to be in the 90s in Tucson, but only in the 60s for the area we would be hiking. Perfect!

This relatively short hike—4.5 miles—was all above 8000' feet, and we topped out at about 9200 feet. The combination of this elevation, some very steep and rock rocky sections, crossing snow banks, and slick areas made it a bit more strenuous than I thought it would be.
Fortunately, the snow was minimal, but there was enough to make my Chaco shod feet get a bit on the frosty side.

The trees that escaped the fires over the years were magnificent, especially the Douglas fir. We saw some about 3' in diameter breast height (DBH).

There were sweeping views down into the Tucson basin, the lower Catalina Mountains, and the distant ranges.

I hope to return in November with Betsy to enjoy the fall color.

There are a few photos here
Mount Lemmon at WikiPedia

See you next time...
Mike