Rose Canyon Lake

While getting acclimated to this increasing hot weather, we decided to head back up into Mount Lemmon for a last hurrah before we begin to get ready for our summer trip to Montana.  I had visited Rose Canyon Lake with my sister back about 2 weeks ago, was a lovely 72 degrees at the top of the mountain while a balmy 99 at the bottom in Tucson.  When Dave and I went up to the top back in January, many of the campgrounds were closed due to snow and having the water pipes freeze.  Most of the campgrounds were now open, opening from April 15 to October 15 each year.  Sine Rose Canyon Lake would be closed again when we get back late this fall, this was an opportunity we wanted to take.

We started the day early, leaving the base of Tucson in 95 degrees at 9am.  We steadily climbed in the car on the Skyway Scenic Drive up to the top of the mountain to a small village called Summerhaven, 22 miles later but in the time we climbed to the top - it was equivalent to driving from Mexico to Alberta crossing the United States in altitude.  In 2005 there was a fire that wiped out all the homes and small businesses in the town and you can still see the effects of the fire and even smell the fire after all this time.  Still, was a beautiful day and we began our treks by climbing even higher to the very top of the mountain where Arizona State University has it's observatory.  Two weeks ago when I brought my sister up to the top, there was still snow along the roadway but it had all melted.  We passed areas on the upper road that had shown signs of wash out due to the melt.  We took in the sights and then drove back down to 9100 feet altitude to Summerhaven and hiked a little of the Marshall Gulch trail - the top picture above.  Very pretty, very rugged.  After an hour or so we decided to go to Rose Canyon Lake and hike around the lake for awhile.  The temperature was 74, absolutely lovely.  Hiked to the other side where the dam is and then hiked back.  Sad part about this day, we won't be able to bring guests here during the winter months because this area is closed off due to snow.  By comparing this lake to Bear Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Bear Lake by far was the best.  However, this little lake is serene, peaceful and you could hear the birds chirping, wind rusting the trees - just lovely. By the time we got back down the mountain and headed for home, the temp was 104.  What we have found is that we are becoming acclimated to the heat and 105 doesn't seem so bad, and 90 at night is a nice night!  Wow - are we Arizonians or what?

Now we begin the countdown to packing up the RV and heading north for the summer.  We aren't sure when we are leaving - there are 5 major fires burning north west and north east of Phoenix and we wanted to stop about 2 hours north east in a town called PineTop in an area called the Mongolian Rim of the White Mountains but aren't sure if that's feasible.  Most of the campgrounds are full, either by people who have left their homes and waiting out the fires, or, by firefighters who are camping there while they fight the fires.  We don't want to travel too far the first night out in case we forgot something, can head back and pick it up.