Our Autumn trip to Mt. Lemmon, Tucson , AZ

We went to Mt.Lemmon last Thursday !

I was always curious to go there but we couldn't find the right time to go until then.

But recently , when we went to a super market called Trader Joe , a friendly young lady who was at the cash register told us a story about her weekend , that she went on a trip to Mt.lemmon and really enjoyed it , driving around , beautiful scenery, and she stopped at a gift shop and a cookie store called the Cookie Cabin.

She recommended us to go there because it's really great.

Very lovely young woman.

Her story also made Ray curious to go to Mt.Lemmon, and see what it's all about .

So we decided to go !

By the way, I got a haircut last week and changed my look.

I was always curious to have a Short Bob style, and this year, seems like the Bob style is trendy, so I thought let's try.

I feel like I became different person with this hair style.

Hair style can really change the impression.

It was a very sunny beautiful day on Thursday.

We were not sure the temperature at the top of the mountain, so we brought some winter clothes.
But it was quite warm, so we did not need them.

Ray was checking many info about Mt.Lemmon, and this time we went to Summerhaven in Mt.Lemmon. Next time we will go to Ski Valley , maybe next summer time.

We left our home about 11am.

It takes about 1 hour and a half minutes to get there.

I love the scenery of the mountain road to get to the top.

First place we stopped was Windy Point Vista.

It's at Mile Marker 14.

This is a wonderful spot to take photos !

There are bathrooms as well, but there is no water, so better to bring wet tissue to clean your hands if you want to use the bathrooms here .

I'm glad I prepared to bring wet towels.

Scenery from this place is awesome.

We both really love this place.

Awesome scenery where we can see the whole of Tucson.

This nature abundance is priceless !

Ray went to almost the top of the rock , so I took some photos of him standing over there.

and I also wanted to go there, but on the way to the rock where Ray was , I accidentally lost balance while walking on the rocks, and twisted my left ankle and fell down on the rock.

OMG.., I wanted to get up soon, but .. could not believe I had no power to get up, because my ankle pain, and I could not move.

Soon Ray was there and helped me to get up.

and then I felt like my blood pressure is getting lower and knew I may faint if I stay there.

So we went back to our car and cooled down, sitting on the seat for a while.

I noticed that I got injury on my left ankle and also right elbow and right knee and was bleeding.

I thought I fell down softly on the rock, so I could not believe I got such a injury.

I think I sprained my left ankle, it's swollen and it's painful to walk right now.

It was my mistake not to wear sneakers.

These shoes are flat but have high heels. I've never had such an issue in my life so I was too easy going about it.

After took a break for a while in the car, we went to Summerhaven where there is a General store , a Gift shop and cookie cabin and a restaurant.

Ray was planning to go to Sabino Canyon Park and Marshall Gulch, but because of my injury, we decided not to go this time.

On the way to Summerhaven, I noticed that the trees there were totally different from Tucson's desert trees. There are many pine trees, and also many leaves are becoming yellow or red, so I could see autumn nature here.

In Tucson, it' hard to feel autumn nature because of desert place. so I was very happy to see the season's nature in the mountain.

In Summerhaven, there are many log houses and Chalet style houses which remind me of houses in Switzerland.

Also reminds me of Whistler mountain Village in Canada .

I really love these kind of log houses, because they give off a warm feeling.

We stopped at Mt.Lemmon Community Center.

There are bathrooms with water and I was glad it was very clean bathroom.

There is a restaurant called " Sawmill Run restaurant " but we didn't go there.

We went to the General store.

One can buy souvenirs and also drinks , snacks, house hold items, and also many kind of huge handmade fudges there.

I found a bandage there, so bought it for my injury.

and some picture postcards for my relatives in Japan.

After that we went to the Cookie Cabin Pizzeria & Eatery .

This place is the one that the Trader Joe's young woman cashier was talking about. and we were curious about it.

I love the way this store is built, like a cozy log cabin.

It's beautiful.

We both wanted to order NATURAL BEEF CHILI DOGs but seems like one woker was absent in that day and they could not make that menu and they only had cookies ( except sampler set ) and Pizza.

But our mood was not for Pizza so we only ordered Cookies and coffee.

For cookies, there are " Chocolate cookie, Brownie with white chocolate chips, White chocolate magadamia nuts, Oatmeal Raisin, Rachel ( Oats, Coconut, and Butterscotch Chips ), Peanut Butter.

I ordered Chocolate chip cookie, and Ray ordered Rachel cookie.

I thought the taste of Chocolate chip cookie was decent, but Ray's cookie Rachel was very delicious.

Next time, I will order the Rachel and also Chili hot dog.

These cookies are very big, so we both ate half of it and took the rest back with us , using the special Cookie Cabin bags which were made for holding the cookies.

After that we were enjoying hanging around the area, taking some photos of nature.

We were walking a little bit, but noticed that the mountain road is often ups and downs and easy to get tired, and breathing hard, maybe due to the altitude ?

It's really different from walking on the flat road in town.

and while we were driving and walking there we saw some bicycle riders ( mountain bicycles ?).
I felt it must be really hard work to ride bicycles around the mountains.

Suddenly it was getting cooler so we decided to go back to Windy point vista again to take some more photos.

In Windy Point Vista, we were taking some photos in the area we missed last time.

Really wonderful view !

But we didn't go to the rocks area because of my injury.

Next time, I will go to the top of the rock where Ray was at, and will take a photo.

Even though I had such an accident, I felt I really had a wonderful day, seeing many autumn nature !

We will definitely come back , maybe next summer time.

and will go to Ski Valley, and also Sabina Canyon Park.

On the way home, the sunset view was very beautiful !

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