Photographer Eric Bergeson recently took a drive along the Catalina Highway (officially the General Hitchcock Highway) up to Mount Lemmon in Pima County in southern Arizona. The highway is the only paved roadway providing access to the resort village of Summerhaven as well as various recreational and scientific facilities located near the summit of Mount Lemmon. Ascending from the desert floor in Tucson to near the summit of Mount Lemmon, the short highway gains over 6,000 feet, showcasing a variety of climates ranging from lowland desert to alpine forests. When at the summit of Mount Lemmon, he checked out the Aspen Trail, which starts just south of the Summerhaven settlement at 9,200 feet. This was where the 2003 Aspen fire was centered.
Unheralded