Seasonal Closures on Mount Lemmon Start This Week

Starting this week, the Coronado National Forest is closing gates on seasonal roads and day-use sites in the upper elevations of Mount Lemmon near Tucson, in anticipation of unsafe driving conditions due to weather.

The main road up the mountain, the Catalina Highway, will remain open but may close periodically in bad weather, the forest said in a press release.

Roads and day use sites affected by the seasonal closure include lower, middle, and upper Control roads; Marshall Gulch Road; lower and upper Bear Wallow roads; Bigelow Road; Incinerator Ridge Road; Organization Ridge Road; the road into General Hitchcock and the Lemmon Rock Road to the Mt. Lemmon summit above Ski Valley.  Roads into Rose and Spencer canyon campgrounds were closed at an earlier date when the recreation areas closed for the season.

Hikers, cross-country skiers, bicyclists and other pedestrians can still use these areas, and recreation sites at lower elevations remain open. The closed areas are scheduled to reopen March 1.

(Photo: Wendy Dunham | Mount Lemmon)