Even though we were hiking at altitudes of between 7,000 and 9,000 ft., it was still a pretty warm day on top of Mt. Lemmon.

There are a few ways to access the Wilderness of Rocks area, and our chosen route was down the Mt. Lemmon Trail to the Lemmon Rock Lookout Trail, down the Wilderness of Rocks Trail, and then up the Mt. Lemmon Trail, with some folks choosing the short alternate spur of the Meadow Trail back to the trailhead.

Shortly after we started the hike, we came across the side spur to the actual Mt. Lemmon Lookout tower. It was well worth the extra time spent there.

Upon arrival at the foot of the stairs leading to the tower, we respectfully rang the doorbell (an old frying pan hanging from the railing) and found Fire Ranger Dave and his dog Gus inside, ready and willing to explain about the tower, the active fires in the area, and how he spots and reports them.

The earliest fire towers were made of trees cleared of branches with a simple wooden platform on top. The current Lemmon Rock Lookout Tower was erected in 1928. It is the oldest tower still in use in the Coronado National Forest, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are 50 permanent lookout towers remaining in the forests of Arizona today.

We could see smoke from a couple of active fires, including the Horseshoe Fire. After taking in the views from the tower, we continued on our way down the Lemmon Rock Lookout Trail.

Along the way, we could see several areas of burned trees, remnants from fires in 2002 and 2003.

We found a great partly shady lunch spot with logs already set up for seating, and made ourselves comfortable for a while, as we knew that it was mostly uphill after this point. Right after lunch, we crossed Lemmon Creek, the only water along the trail.

As we descended into the Wilderness of Rocks area, we started seeing interesting formations, hoodoos and balanced rocks.

We could also see how far we had gone since the lookout tower. Not too long after lunch, one of our hikers was having difficulty doing the uphill trek, due to the altitude and possibly the warm weather.

We were able to contact each other via walkie talkie, consult the map and Michael graciously took the hiker back on a different trail, one that involved about 1,000 feet less elevation gain, ending at Marshall Gulch Trailhead.

The rest of the group continued on the scheduled route up the Mt. Lemmon Trail back to the trailhead. Some preferred to keep moving at a steady pace, while others preferred to take quick breaks along the way for a breather.

Rudy took advantage of his quick pace to do some rock exploring and to catch up on his harmonica lessons.

A couple of those that finished the hike earlier than the others went over to the Marshall Gulch Trailhead to pick up the two hikers who split from our group, but the two hikers had not yet arrived and it was getting a little late in the day.

We tried contacting them by cell phone, as we thought we were too far out of walkie talkie range. No luck with the cell phone, but we were able to reach them on the walkie talkie after all, so we found out they were not far from the trailhead, and gave them a warm welcome when our group was all reunited again.

We then all made our way over to Pizza Hut for dinner, where we made quick work of the multiple pizzas before the long drive home.