Mount Lemmon, the tallest mountain in the Santa Catalinas just north of Tucson, Arizona, is an important location in terms of ecology, geology and astronomy. Hosting the Mount Lemmon observatory and its supporting town, people live on it year round. As a result, the Mount Lemmon Highway was built connecting the observatory and the city of Tucson. More than just a road, the highway has some amazing views over Tucson, the Sonoran Desert, and other aspects of the area.

Starting your journey

Starting at the bottom, the Mount Lemmon Highway starts at Tanque Verde Road in eastern Tucson. At this point it is known as East Catalina Highway. This road cuts diagonally across the grid system of roads until it reaches Soldier Canyon, which is where you leave the suburbs and housing communities and begin the ascent of the Catalinas. At this point the name also changes to the Mt Lemmon Highway and begins the wiggles and switchbacks of a mountain road.

After the first hairpin turn, you will also find the Soldier Trail trailhead, which connects to other trails and allows you to hike throughout the Catalinas.

Babad Do’ag

The first scenic overlook is Babad Do’ag. At this point you are still at a relatively low elevation; Saguaro cacti and many of the other plants typical to the Sonoran desert still grow here. This point is also a good place to access the Babad Do’ag hiking trail, which goes almost all the way to the next stop.

Molino Canyon Vista

The next viewpoint is the Molino Canyon Vista, which is the first viewpoint that is within the Catalinas. This is where the first major changes in your surroundings can be noticed. In addition to the flowing water that is nearby (a rare sight in the desert), this is also the point where the ecology begins to change more drastically. Siting at over 4,000 ft (1.22 km), the drive until this point has been changing from the desert at its base to a combination of grassland and desert. Starting from Molino Canyon Vista, the ecology changes to Oak Woodland. From here on, the most notable change is switching from cacti to trees as the largest plant life. You are also now securely in the Coronado National Forest, an area protected by the US federal government.

Molino Canyon Vista is also a good place to access the Molino Basin Campground and Molino Basin Trailhead

From this point onwards, the Mount Lemmon Highway is also known as the General Hitchcock Highway.

Thimble Peak and 7 Falls Vistas

The next set of viewpoints, known as Thimble Peak Vista and 7 Falls Vista, feature views to the west of Sycamore Reservoir, an oasis that feeds the edge of the desert as well as the ecosystem in this area. The level of these viewpoints is roughly equal with the ridgeline of the first row of mountains, so views to the south are not very impressive.

Windy Vista

The next stop on the Mount Lemmon Highway is Windy Vista, which is located much higher than the previous viewpoints and comes after climbing a very long and steep hairpin section of the highway. While offering similar views to Thimble Peak and 7 Falls when looking west, when looking south it features views from behind the first mountain ridges while still allowing visitors to see the Sonoran Desert and Tucson on the other side.

This is also the last viewpoint where you can see Tucson, the Sonoran Desert, and south of the mountains.

Remaining Viewpoints

The remaining viewpoints, San Pedro Vista, View in the Mount, and Aspen Vista, are nestled between the tallest mountains (including Mount Lemmon) and only offer views down various valleys and into other natural and protected areas, such as Butterfly Peak Natural Area.

Each viewpoint also offers trailheads that connect to the maze of trails that run through this area.

Summerhaven

The he Mount Lemmon Highway ends in Summerhaven, a small town that originally was set up to support the Mt Lemmon SkyCenter Observatory. Nowadays, in addition to scientists and nature enthusiasts, there are several stores, businesses and food trucks that can also be found here. More recently a couple of hotels and lodges have also been established in Summerhaven, allowing people to spend multiple days here exploring the area.

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