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| | | Meadow Tr - Mt Lemmon Tr Loop, AZ | | | |
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Meadow Tr - Mt Lemmon Tr Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 2.62 Miles |
529 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.62 Miles | 2 Hrs 9 Mns | | 1.62 mph |
| 529 ft AEG | 32 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Nice little hike for families, people who aren't in peak condition, or anyone who just wants to take it easy and enjoy the scenery. Above 8,700 feet the whole way, it's one of the highest-elevation hikes you can do in the Santa Catalinas and it's big on views. That makes it pretty popular too; I passed a variety of other people at all skill levels, from serious hikers heading out to more distant trails to groups with kids and mobility aids.
I've been up here before for the UofA SkyCenter SkyNights program (which I highly recommend!) but the road is closed in the winter and I have never managed to nose around the trails here much. I started at the Mount Lemmon Trailhead Parking lot, right before the gates for the SkyCenter. It appears to be a popular spot on weekends - come early or take your chances with finding a parking spot. There's a little rest stop and picnic site up here, and an interpretive sign educating you about Sarah Plummer Lemmon if you didn't know who the summit was named after. Just past the trees there's a gorgeous view looking down the Catalinas and Tucson to the south. Last time I looked out here, I encountered a flock of Harris hawks soaring nearby above the drop. No raptors spotted today.
The correct start for the trail would be to hook a left around the fenced in power station right next to the parking lot, which is pretty clearly signed and will take you to the trails. Instead I started out going right from the vista I mentioned above, a rocky trail that leads up to the radio towers. I realized I was off-trail, but it was all good because there is a little path along the fence behind those towers that connect back to the trails.
Once you're on the right trail, you'll get up to a signed junction between Mt Lemmon Trail #5 and the Meadow Trail #5A. I took the fork up the Meadow Trail. There's very gentle elevation gain here. The trail follows the outside of the SkyCenter fence for a while, including more radio towers. I saw plenty of evidence that the Forest Service had been working to repair the damage from the Bighorn Fire (which SkyCenter reported got very near to them). Once-giant dead pines have been sawed down and left behind. It's worth noting in several places along this hike, felled trees actually run across the trail. I'm assuming at some point they'll saw out the parts that block the trail, like I saw on the Aspen Trail, but for now you'll need to scramble over a thigh-high log or cut around a bit.
The woods break into a meadow. Like, it appears to be a proper subalpine meadow with ferns and flowering plants and a few mostly charred trees. With this year's monsoon, the area looks like it grew in nicely. The big plants have dropped their flowers by this point, and the ferns are starting to turn orange with fall. I'd love to come up here in the spring when things are blooming.
There are numerous little spur trails that branch off. Given this is a short loop, I encourage you to indulge your curiosity and explore them. They generally lead out to some amazing viewpoints.
The meadow ends in a t-junction, with the right trail descending back into the woods. Note that this part of the trail looks over the northern side of Mt. Lemmon, an entirely different view than you'll see in nearly every part of the Catalinas accessible from the highway. The tree cover is pretty good here, though, so you're just getting fleeting glimpses of the the distant peaks north of Tucson. You might be able to hike off-trail to find a good vista, but I didn't see one. I passed the charred felled remains of an absolute giant of a tree. I ran into another felled tree that ran across the path, and there was no going around it - just up and over taking care not to snag anything on the broken-off branches. Soon the clouds broke, bringing out the fall meadow colors.
The Meadow Trail eventually joins up with Mt Lemmon Trail #5, an old Jeep trail. The view here for a while is some of the best anywhere in the area, looking down out across the valleys and ridges of the Santa Catalinas, across Tucson and its large airbase, all the way to the Rincon foothills and the Santa Ritas on the horizon. To the right, the trail continues on towards some epic rock formations, but we're heading back to the lot on the right fork.
Along the way, I passed what the maps indicate as Quartzite Spring. There's a locked-up metal shack along the road. Nearby up the hill a little there are small metal housings. Out of these, water was running out and across the road, and I stepped carefully to keep my feet dry. From a small pipe below the road, water cascades out and down into the valley. Had this been a longer hike, this would have been a good water source.
The fire watch station can be spotted jutting out from an outcropping ahead. Eventually, the road gets back into the woods, and there's a signed junction for the lookup trail, also a Jeep road. A trickle of water ran across the road at one spot, and I spotted several small birds darting across the road, hiding out in the abundant ground cover. The afternoon sun cut through the trees along the lookout road just right, and it really felt like autumn up here. Along here, there's a gated trailhead that descends down into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, but this is closed. The maps indicate this connects to the AZT. I assume they haven't repaired that trail yet.
I arrived at the base of the lookout post, only to discover it was closed to the public during fire season. I guess I had hoped to check out the station and chat with a ranger for a bit. There were home improvement buckets sitting around too - looks like they were in the middle of some repairs. Instead, I spotted an old wooden chair set up on a rocky outcropping nearby. Probably, I wouldn't have noticed this spot if someone hadn't set up the odd chair. I didn't dare actually plop my weight onto the poor chair, but did sit out on this outcropping a while, took my snack, and enjoyed one of the best views in town.
I hiked back to the main trail and continued on. It's gradual elevation gain back to 9,000 feet the rest of the way. I'm not used to high elevation so I noticed the extra effort. I ran into a couple weird things here. I passed an older bearded gentleman, decked out in camo, wearing a frame pack with a long rifle attached to it. He tried hard not to make eye contact. This seemed uh... sus - I didn't know there was any hunting up here - but I wasn't going to make it my problem. I also spotted a pickup parked up here. These old roads are closed for driving, but the vehicle did have a UofA permit on the dash, so again, I wasn't making it my problem.
I passed what's marked as Cascade Spring on the map. There's what might be a pumphouse and some nice logs to sit on, but there was already a group set up there having a break so I didn't investigate. Instead, I hiked up a little further and caught my breath in a little clearing where the road forks the the left, and a little trail forks to the right. I decided to explore the trail to the right, and I'm glad I did. It leads up to a little lookout that offers yet another great view, this time overlooking the other side of the fire lookout station, the Sabino Canyon ridges including the Thimble, Mount Bigelow with the little white dome of Steward Observatory Catalina Station peeking out from the trees, and the valleys and mountains to the northeast of the Catalinas.
The rest of the way back is just a trudge up the old road through the woods. Pleasant enough this nice fall day, but there are enough manmade structures from the old radar base scattered around it feels more like a park here and less like NATURE. Elevation levels out once you get back to the Meadow Trail junction. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Light
Mostly evergreens up here. A handful of aspens can be spotted turning yellow. However the ground cover, mostly ferns and things, is turning nice orange and red colors. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Isolated little wildflowers along the trail here and there. Larger flowering plants have lost their blooms. |
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Quartzite Spring |
Gallon per minute |
Gallon per minute |
| |  A good flow is running out from under metal housings near the pumphouse and across the jeep trail, with tiny falls in a couple spots. Water spills out from the pipe below the trail. | | _____________________
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