There are times when black and white images work so much better than color! This is the desert east of Tucson. As you may know, Tucson is surrounded by mountains. The mountains you see in the background are the Santa Catalina’s. Just to my right and out of the photo are the Rincon Mountains. And yes, the white stuff you see on the mountains is snow.
I took this photo in February, not long after a storm passed through. On this day, the snow did not make it down to the desert floor. In fact, it seldom does. Natives tell me that happens only once every 10 years. But the Santa Catalina’s get snow quite often in the winter.
The only road up into those mountains goes up to Mt. Lemmon (9,159 feet elevation) then back down the other side. On top of Mt. Lemmon are several very large telescopes…many belonging to the University of Arizona which has an amazing astronomy and space program.
Just before you get to the telescopes, you will find a ski resort. I’ve been up there in late March and found snow 3’ deep. That may not sound like a lot to you folks up north, but remember, these are desert mountains and in March, it can be 75-80 degrees in Tucson.
Yes, it gets hot here in the summer…and we have monsoons in July in August that drive the humidity sky-high. But four months of hot weather is the price we pay for eight months of good weather. For example, it is November 5 here around 4:00 PM as I write these words and it is 76 outside. Think about that as you throw another log on the fire.
And if you wonder where some of your neighbors are and why you haven’t seen them in a while, they are probably down here for the winter. We call them snowbirds.
