Tucson Day 6

Today was an outdoor day. The weather was clear, high temperature in the mid 70's, brilliantly sunny, with a cool breeze. We spent the day in the Catalina Mountains, visiting Sabino and Bear Canyons, and Mt. Lemmon. Here is a slide show starting with Sabino Canyon and ending with Mt. Lemmon. The canyons were dry, but  we saw two 'beaches' along the way (sandy areas along the creek bed where you can see the dark line on the rocks nearby where water reaches when it flows). I can now identify mesquite and palo verde trees and gneiss rocks. A roadrunner stopped by to show off for the camera. And we saw a saguaro growing out of a rock, which is an indication how adaptable they are. 
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Then we decided to head for higher ground. Mt. Lemmon is over 8,000 feet above sea level. Being an Easterner, I have never been to that elevation before. Driving up the mountain, we could see Tucson to the south and the San Pedro River to the east.  It was 20 degrees cooler when we reached the top, and there was a bit of snow left from a storm that came through last Saturday.  See? the ice and snow are following us!