Sabino Canyon

My husband and I spent a few hours in Sabino Canyon last weekend on his day off.  It was really nice to get outside and enjoy the desert.  We took the little tram that you can ride into the canyon and enjoyed the late evening there.  This would be a great thing for people to do that don't like to hike or can't hike very far.  It is almost 4 miles to the top of the tram line if you take the Sabino Canyon Trail. There are nine stops along the way and you can get off and on at any one of them.  You can also take the Bear Canyon Trail.  It runs all day, so my suggestion is to go early and enjoy the afternoon in the canyon.  Maybe have a picnic, or just relax by the stream.

The tram is 2 cars long.  You can get the schedule on-line here.

I never would have thought Arizona would look like this.

Look at all the Saguaro sticking up across the hills.  

One of the many areas that would make a good spot to rest.

Thimble Peak

I am totally loving being outdoors.

We went in the evening, so we got to see a bit of the sun going down in the mountains.  I love the colors during this time of day. So beautiful!

You can learn more about the canyon and the tours on their site.  I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Tucson, even if you don't like walking or hiking.  If you like the outdoors, you will love their tours.  Plus, you can pretend you went hiking.  Nobody will ever know the difference.

Mount Lemmon

Mount Lemmon is about an hour and a half outside of Tucson, but you would never know it.  At the top of the mountain is a skiing area, woods you would expect to see in Colorado, and temperatures less than  20 degrees that of Tucson.  Bring your jacket and mittens, you aren't in the desert anymore.  To go to their official site, click here.

  

We drove up in early September and it was a refreshing 66 degrees, while in Tucson it was about 105 degrees.  For a map and directions, click here.

 During the drive, the surroundings change from city, to open desert, to winding wind blown rocky roads, and end up in a stunning forest of pines and aspens.

Wide mountain roads were easy to drive.

There is also a Sky Center on the top of Mount Lemmon.  To read more about it, click here.

Bright blue Arizona sky.

Open rock for miles with cacti all over it.  I would love to come back and do some hiking.  There are tons of trails from the base all the way to to top.  Read more about them here.

We road the ski lift at the top and enjoyed an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and the ski routes.  There were wildflowers below the lift and trees all around.  

At the top of the lift, we got off and walked around for a little while, took some photos, and enjoyed the cooler air.

The view from the top was amazing.

The lift was pretty empty, but we weren't the only ones there.

Looking down from the lift.

The map of all the routes.  It looks like I will be skiing this winter after all.  Pray for snow!

Carved aspen trees.  These will be beautiful in the fall.  We are so excited to go back.

You could see the ski routes, which was pretty cool. I kept looking for the easy ones, and my husband was scoping out the black diamond routes.