Arizona - Mt. Lemmon Skycenter

Two of my kids and I were getting stir crazy and decided to go to Arizona for a few days. We picked the wrong time of the year to go – it was HOT!!! On our first day there, we were a bit overwhelmed with the heat, so we decided to drive up Mount Lemmon.

Prior to going up the mountain, we learned of and signed up for a class at Mt. Lemmon Skycenter. We weren’t sure what to expect, since we hadn’t done a lot of research before signing up, but it was an awesome day!

Driving up the mountain, we stopped and enjoyed the view at a few locations. The mountain is super interesting, because at the bottom, the temperature was over 110 degrees, and there were cacti everywhere and the signs warned of rattlesnakes. As we went up in elevation, the temperature went down, and the foliage changed quite a bit. By the time we were on the top, we saw signs warning us of bears!

At the Skycenter, we left our cars at the front of the center and got on busses. There were about 20 people in attendance, and there were two large vans to take us to each location. The first stop was at one of the several telescopes. It was light out, and we learned that the various telescopes on the top of the mountain were each being controlled by different groups from all over the world remotely. We looked through the telescope and saw the moon. We were able to hold our phones up to the lens of the telescope and get photos of what we could see on the telescope.

The second stop was a learning center at the Skycenter – when we had a quick dinner and watched a video with information about the Skycenter and the different research that happens at the Skycenter.

The next stop was back up to the top of the mountain, next to several of the telescopes. From this location, we watched a beautiful sunset, then went into one of the telescopes to see stars, galaxies and the moon during the night.

It was an amazing place!