Rough drive to rediscover a wounded mountain reveals Mount Lemmon's slow resurgence

WE HAD NOT been to the our journey. Like any good compared to millions on the we joined the Mount Lemmon mountain since the fire. quest, this one surmounted paved Catalina Highway on Road that zips across Dread kept us away. In the challenges in hazardous the southeast side, according ranchland to Peppersauce summer of 2003, forest places to seek the treasure at to Bob Magon of the Forest Canyon, at which point the fires ravaged the soaring the end. Service. If the weather turns road is labeled Forest Service green playground of Mount Control Road, also called bad or you lack a high• Road 38. Along the way, the Lemmon, Tucson's back yard. Mount Lemmon Road, bumps clearance vehicle, then stick pavement gave way to a well• The fire consumed historic roughly up the north side of to the beaten path of the maintained gravel road and cabins and ancient trees, the Santa Catalina Mountains Catalina Highway. That main passed by one of the entrances replacing scenic splendor from Peppersauce Canyon route provides smooth to the Arizona Trail. In with Halloween-scary images. near the town of Oracle, pavement, guardrails and Peppersauce Canyon, picnic But both man and nature northwest of Tucson, to the pullouts-and a quicker trip. tables nestled under towering worked on recovery, and Summerhaven Fire Station. But this being a quest, we cottonwoods and birches in a . to celebrate the rebirth, Some 10,000 cars toil up did it the hard way. Veering cool, green retreat. one sparkling fall day my this adventurous back road to right from American Avenue The mountains disappeared husband and I set out on Mount Lemmon each year, in Oracle at a Y-intersection, as the road curved and dipped

46 5 E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 the car. Blackened trees from the fire bristled on both sides of the narrow road. We bumped up 6 miles of unpaved road in 14 minutes. Juniper trees raised our hopes that we were gaining altitude. However, the road dipped down into mesquite and crossed a deep wash-a reminder that this is not a road for rainy days. Negotiating a hairpin turn atop a ridge, we glimpsed light gleaming off distant telescopes atop Mount Lemmon. Small black skeletons of trees. Even GO THE DISTANCE The Arizona yellow flowers brightened the so, we could see nature Trail, a nearly 800·mile nonmotorized route that will traverse the state dusty brown roadside. striving to recover. Green when it's completed, can be accessed Groups of men wearing sprouted everywhere. We just outside Oracle from Control Road, bulky jackets sat around their were unaware how high we designated as Forest Service Road 38. muddy pick-up trucks on the had climbed until expansive flat ridge among scrub oaks views opened toward In 2003, the Aspen Fire and prickly pear cacti. In the Aravaipa Creek and Muleshoe ran violently across the fall, deer hunters gather at Ranch to the southeast. mountain, whirling this dispersed camping sites in A bad washout in the road way and stretching its arms the Coronado National Forest forced us to slow the Jeep to a out that way. It snapped its and peer through binoculars, crawl and pick our way over a fingers and great ponderosa hoping for mule deer to one-lane bridge and up a hill. pines exploded. It licked venture out from cover. While The road circled the rim of a a red tongue across the they wait, they engage in the deep bowl, where rounded earth and left a black trail. real activity of hunting brown hills and grassy It toyed with manzanita season-swapping jokes and meadows seemed downright tall tales on a sunny day in a civilized in contrast to the CATALINA AND CORONADO quiet place. rough hillsides we had A maze of ponderosa pine trees Ten slow miles from passed. However, remnants of emerges from a forest floor thick with pine needles in the Santa Peppersauce, we entered a the forest fire erased any Catalina Mountains area of the ghost forest, haunted by the illusion of a Shangri-La. Coronado National Forest.

through the foothills above Peppersauce Campground, taking its time to approach the summit: Ranchers still run cattle here, and houses and fences peek out of valleys. Signs of mining still mark the hillsides. In a field, an ancient corral slowly fades and crumbles. As the road climbed, views of the distant valley opened up, and the first burned trees sliced across the sky. In a tooth-rattling test of our mettle, the sharp granite bones of the mountain poked up through sparse gravel. Dead, spooky-looking century plants leaned over

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS COM 47 THE COMEBACK TRAil Damage from the 2003 Aspen Fire isstill evident along the Mount Lemmon back road leading to the newly rebuilt town of Summerhaven.

and yucca, assigning S0111e clusters to extermination while leaving neighboring clusters untouched. Two years later, stubborn grasses asserted themselves and vivid green leaves peered out from blackened limbs. The mountain will not look the same in our lifetime, experts say. But it will not stay black and dead. After an hour on the road, greeting was that? Ho\vever, Just as we thought the road Cravel'tip~ ,"vesaw warning signs: as if to soften the lecture on couldn't get worse, we hit Vehicle Requirements: High· clearance, four-wheel drive. I "Un maintained Road-7 caution, the other side of the a stretch that looked more Warning: Back-road travel can I miles." "Falling Trees-next road opened to a panoramic like a rock-climbing area be hazardous. Be aware of I weather and road conditions. I 6 miles." "Flash Flood-next view that stretched for miles than a road. There must be 6 miles." What kind of to the northeast. Carry plenty of water. Don't I a better. designation than travel alone, and let someone I "unmaintained." The Jeep know where you're going and route finder . drew a deep breath, hesitated, when you plan to return. C Travel Advisory: Allow four I then crawled up over the hours minimum for a round• N01e 1\;11Ieages are apprOXimate barrier of rocks. While the trip from Tucson to Oracle, From the intersection of State Route 77 and State Route 79 at > up Control Road and back Oracle Junction north of Tucson, drive northeast on State 77 for 9 miles Forest Service and the county down Catalina Highway. The to American Avenue and turn right (east). do minimal maintenance on unpaved Control Road makes > Drive 2.4 miles on.American Avenue to its junction with Mount most of Control Road. this up about 25 miles of this loop. Lemmon Road (also called Old Mount Lemmon Highway and Control Additional Information: Road) and turn right (south). stretch across private property Coronado National Forest, remains truly primitive. Santa Catalina Ranger > At 1.1 miles south of the turnoff onto Mount Lemmon Road, pass a District, (520) 749-8700; road on the left leading to Oracle State Park. For decades before the 1920 www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado. > At 1.7 miles south of the turnoff, a sign marks the boundary of the completion of Control Road, Coronado National Forest. Tucsonans had climbed on > At 3.2 miles south of the turnoff, bear right as the road forks at an foot or with the help of horses Oracle to the fire station on unsigned Y junction. and mules to collect wood, the top in two-and-a-half > At 4 miles south of the turnoff, a signed Arizona Trail entry is on the left. minerals or peace and quiet. It hours, with more bumps and took five years of political grinds "than a night at a > At 4.8 miles south of the turnoff, cross the east-west Campo Bonito Road, an intersection where a sign designates the road you're on as wrangling to complete the cowboy dance hall. The Forest Service Road 38. first road to Summerhaven, reward for the adventurous > At 8.1 miles south of the turnoff, pass Peppersauce Campground. and this was the only route waited at Mt. Lemmon Cafe, a > Continue on FR 38 for an additional 19.5 miles to the Summerhaven until 1933, when taxpayers treasured business that Fire Station and turn right for a short drive into Summerhaven. Turn left survived the fire. There, we for a drive to Tucson via Catalina Highway. funded Catalina Highway. The narrow road still leaves found shining circles of-no, no room to pass another not gold rings-but something vehicle or to pull off the side. even better-tin pans of pie. It is this section that gave the Mountains teach quiet road its name. Because cars lessons: Keep putting one foot going in opposite directions in front of the other and you could not pass, signs will reach tile top. Time will "controlled" traffic on this heal, and life will defeat stretch. The upward-bound destructive forces. Taking the drivers had to leave at a set hard road has its rewards.

time, offset by 90 minutes from Scenery and pie. AM the four daily departure times for the traffic headed HISTORIC HillSIDES Rolling down. hills (right) dotted with agaves, We climbed from 4,000 ocotillos, mesquite trees and scrub oaks dominate the landscape to 8,000 feet in elevation, that is home to several historic covering the 28 miles from southern Arizona ranches.

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