Mount Lemmon
— the road climbs out of the desert into pine.
Not only on a wall.
“A sky island above Tucson. Twenty-five miles of paved road climb from saguaro to ponderosa pine, ending near nine thousand feet. The forest at the top feels borrowed from Colorado and set down in the Sonoran Desert. Summerhaven sits in the cool, and on the clearest nights the SkyCenter opens its telescopes to the public.
Mount Lemmon, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Mount Lemmon is the high point of the Santa Catalina Mountains, rising to about 9,159 feet (2,792 m) on the northern edge of Tucson. It sits within Coronado National Forest and is reached by the Catalina Highway, the Sky Island Scenic Byway, which climbs roughly 25 miles from the desert floor. The summit was first surveyed by botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon in 1881 with her husband and a local guide, and remains the only peak in the Santa Catalinas named for a woman.
In about an hour of driving, the air shifts through climate zones equivalent to a trip from Sonora to southern Canada. Saguaro give way to oak, then to Douglas fir and ponderosa pine near the top. Summer afternoon temperatures at the summit can run thirty degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the desert below. The same north-facing slopes hold Ski Valley, the southernmost ski area in the contiguous United States, opened in 1962 and still operating on natural snow when winter allows.
The Catalina Highway is paved and open year-round, though winter storms can close the upper miles. Summerhaven, the small mountain village near the top, has a general store, a fudge shop, and a famous cookie place. The Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, run by the University of Arizona, hosts public stargazing programs on most clear evenings, using telescopes up to 32 inches; reservations are required. A Coronado National Forest day-use pass is needed at most trailheads and picnic areas along the byway.