There was steady traffic on the highway and every trailhead I could see had at least one car – on such a lovely day it was inspiring to see so many people out enjoying the mountain. I parked at the Sunset Trailhead and took the unsigned 1918 Trail – the trail runs along a stream near the highway and into the Bear Wallow area – never far from the road, but so beautiful with the fall colors that the sounds of the cars are easily forgotten.

Eventually I turned onto Bigelow Road – steady running to the top – back the way I came. 1918 and Bigelow Road to Mount Bigelow and back the same way – 7 miles, +/- 930′ elevation gain/loss (round-trip).

The changing leaves have been featured in several recent articles – both have some suggestions about places to go to see the colors: Autumn leaves flush Catalinas with color, Douglas Kreutz, Arizona Daily Star – and Hittin’ the Trails 4 You: Mt. Lemmon’s Fall color hot spots, Jeff Beamish, KVOA.com.

Another great post to with some fall colors in the Santa Catalina Mountains is Sirena’s Happy 5th Anniversary! – congratulations to Sirena on her blog’s 5th anniversary! Sirena’s Wanderings is a GREAT source of information and inspiration!

Road construction is on-going – on the weekends there are no delays but areas like the one below (with the pavement removed) located just down-mountain from the Ridgeline Parking Pullout are likely to cause delays on the weekdays…