2024 Another Winter Visit to Tucson

At the beginning of our stay in Tucson, we thought we were lucky enough to have a new moon and would be able to see the magnitude of stars that we don’t get to see with all of the artificial light that brightens the night sky. Our thought was to go up to the other side of Mt Lemmon. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, but we were able to capture Tucson and the surrounding areas from above lit up.

On another day, we went to the top of Mt Lemmon for lunch. The thought was to just take an easy ride. As we were about to head back down the mountain, we found Old Mt Lemmon Road. It’s a dirt road where high clearance 4x4 vehicles only are allowed. Yes, Jeff had an unexpected off-road opportunity which he couldn't pass up.

Last year when we stayed in Tucson, we didn’t get to the Pima Air and Space Museum. This time we made it a point to go there.

San Javier Del Bac Mission is a landmark we came across by accident. It’s a historic Spanish Catholic mission that was founded in 1700.

I think our favorite find while staying in Tucson this time was the Chiricahua National Monument. We didn’t get there early enough to get a parking spot to hike the Echo Canyon Loop, so we moved on to Sugarloaf Mountain for a 1.8 mile roundtrip hike with an elevation gain of 470 feet. At the top, we took the time to chill at the lookout building and to take in the views of the pinnacles that surrounded us.