Tucson Sunset

My husband was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. I was born and raised (mostly) in Louisville, Kentucky. We met on the Internet in the Spring of 1997. It was a whirlwind romance. By December 1997 I had moved to Arizona to be with him. In February 1998 we were married. We moved back to Louisville in October 1999 to be closer to my family. In 2006 we decided it was time to go back and visit his parents in Tucson. We realized we missed not only his family, but Arizona as well. So now we make a yearly pilgrimage to Tucson.

There are a few things that I absolutely love about Arizona; the weather, the scenery, and especially the mountains.

In Tucson, you are surrounded by mountains on every side. To the north you have the Catalina Mountains, to the east you have the Rincon Mountains, to the south you have the Santa Rita Mountains, and to the west you have the Tucson Mountains. The Catalina Mountains, particularly Mount Lemmon, are the tallest and most accessible range. You can travel the Catalina Highway to the top of Mount Lemmon where you will find Summerhaven and Ski Valley. Along the highway you will find pullouts for scenic and picnic areas. The Catalina Mountains are approximately 9000 feet high. As you travel the Catalina Highway you start in the desert and work your way up to an evergreen forest. When I lived in Tucson, the Catalinas were my way of having a small piece of Kentucky in Arizona. If it is 100 degrees in Tucson, it is 70 degrees in Summerhaven. In the winter there is often snow on Mount Lemmon.

The last photo was taken at the Babad Doag pullout on the Catalina Highway. This is one of the first scenic pullouts on the highway. We had spent a few hours traveling up and down the mountain and decided to wait there for the sunset. I just love the way the rays of sunlight are splashing over the city. As we were leaving the mountain and got to the bottom of the foothills, the skyline lit up with oranges, pinks, and reds. I had to pullover to the side of the road to take the first two photographs.

Sunsets like these are a fairly common occurrence in the Arizona desert.

Orange Sunset


Desert Sunset

Sunset Over The Tucson Mountains