Early afternoon temperatures in the 90’s, my car was headed towards the lofty Santa Catalina Mountains, the backdrop to the Sonoran Desert city of Tucson. At the end of October!
At just over 9,000 feet in elevation, my destination of Mount Lemmon is several life zones above the big town, and many days, about 30F cooler.
For the plant-savvy, that’s trading the land of saguaros and jojoba for maples and aspens!
Trade was made.
At about 7,500 feet elevation, hiking this trail (mostly level walking) was through fallen leaves and the scents of far-away, mixed hardwood forests. It’s a different world than the Sonoran Desert that surrounds these mountains on most every side.
In fact, the drive between 2,500 feet in town and these maples went through several different plant communities as we climbed. But I was busy driving, so no documentation.
The best parts began after hiking west through the tunnel under the highway.
Most of the reds, oranges, and yellows in this low area are Bigtooth Maple / Acer grandidentatum. They grow best in areas capturing more moisture than flows downhill from adjacent, higher and drier land. A small creek was flowing that day.
So, there’s plenty of inspiration for how plant communities and the land work together, only with different plants than desert people can or should employ in the landscape.
Including water harvesting. In fact, this is some of what water harvesting emulates.
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It was time to get some cookies and fudge in Summerhaven, then enjoy a short hike a little higher in elevation, where a hard freeze or three were evident.
Nearing 9,000 feet elevation, aspens become abundant, while maples drop off in quantity but never fully disappear. Presenting Quaking Aspen / Populus tremuloides.
We’re getting above my zone of plant knowledge here, but I’ll try. This mass of grasses looks to be a montane fescue, perhaps Festuca arizonica, given the fine blades of foliage.
Did you notice how dark the soil is up here? It’s fairly rich with decomposed organic matter, unlike most of the desert soils nearby, or farther away where I live.
But the last two photos of a coarse-leafed plant, fading into cool season dormancy, are the stars in a few spots on this last hike. These are Heracleum maximum / Cow Parsnip, a favorite of a co-founder of both an informal society of aficionados into said plant and a renowned landscape architecture firm in Cascadia – Shannon Nichol herself.
She was happy to see this species and plant community thriving so far from her beloved Salish Sea and their much loftier Tahoma.
But enough of that – back to the final exploration and that sharp, late afternoon chill of Mount Lemmon.
A few stands of aspen had already shed their leaves. The scent of the balsam from that tree was subtle but nicely warmed the chill.
More maples tucked into large stands of aspens, occasionally punctuated by Roundleaf Snowberry / Symphoricarpos rotundifolius, Hairy Brackenfern / Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens, and the evergreen Netleaf Oak / Quercus rugosa.
Near the frigid top, distant views…
A small ski area, too…
Then, the long descent into Tucson as the sun began to set, the temperature out the windows warmed nicely, and also no photos. But memories of a skilled road cyclist, who was usually close to the 35+ MPH speed limit for many miles, pacing him at several car lengths behind.
I was partly saving my car’s poor brakes and gripping my steering wheel for much of the 40 minutes to the bottom of the hill. Though rush hour, Siri routed me on a rather traffic-free, winding and up / down road west another 25 minutes, towards other plans that night.
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Obviously, I had to leave and return home. Looks about right – if it was March.
It's A Dry Heat 
