From Tuscon to Lake Meade

So I ended up staying in the Tuscon area one extra day.  On Sunday, I made an early morning trip up to the Catalina Highway, a remarkable piece of highway that climbs 6500 feet in about 25 miles taking you from the low Saguaro Cactus desert up through the scrub habitats of the mid elevations, and finally up into the Pine forests up above 8000 feet.  To actually see the changing habitats as you drive up in elevation is really unique.  I wasn’t the only one, though enjoying an early Sunday morning drive.  I must have passed over 200 cyclists who were making the trip to the top as well.  I give those guys so much credit.  25 miles of pedaling uphill.  Man, makes running seem easy.  The top of the mountain afforded panoramic views of the Tuscon area and mountains even further out.  In fact I could see Mexico from a few vantage points.  That’s over 100 miles away!  Imagine being in Rochester and being able to see West Tower on campus.  Or for those followers back home in Pa, pretend you could look out your window and almost see Baltimore, MD.  It’s something like that.  

From atop Mt. Lemon looking down to the Tuscon area far below

Bug

Yellow-eyed Junco, one of those special SE Arizona birds I was looking for

I finished my hike and the car thermometer read a cool 68.  I watched that number go up up up, until I reached the deserts surrounding Tuscon a half hour later….100 degrees.  Well….it is July.  I spent the rest of the day making one of my longest drives yet, going from Tuscon, all the way through to Bullhead City, AZ which is on Lake Meade and only 40 miles from Las Vegas.  The drive was tough though.  It took all 77 Green Day songs and all 16 Guster songs on my ipod to get me through, but I made it.

Drove through lots of nothing to get to Lake Meade….

A lot of the trip was along a 100 mile stretch of highway, designated the Scenic Joshua Forest Highway.  But there was no forest in sight.  A poor choice for a highway name, the entire drive was simply more desert scrub, except with this tree everywhere…. 

Joshua Tree

Lake Meade is really bizarre.  Formed when they dammed up the Colorado River, it’s a boaters dream, especially for boaters from the west, who don’t see much in the form of large bodies of water.  But its just so unnatural looking in the middle of a rocky desert environment.  Either side of the Lake is just rocks and dirt.  There are no trees growing along its shores because there aren’t any natural streams that historically flowed into this area.  Despite the availability of water, the place still seems kind of desolate in terms of wildlife.  Plus, I did a run around the shore of the lake near the marina where I was staying, and the whole place has an odor of engine fuel, and some other unnatural stench to it.  Oh I’d love to go water skiing and tubing just as much as the next person, but if I had my choice, I’d rather be on Cayuga Lake, Sand Lake, basically any other body of water back east.  It did feel good, however to jump into clear 80 water the next morning after still feeling sticky from my run the night before.

Lake Meade

I feel like there's one of these in every town.  This one was in Surprise, AZ