December 25, 2020 Tucson, Arizona

 70 degrees and partly cloudy to sunny. We had a quiet Christmas by ourselves. John BBQed some lime cilantro shrimp. 

Frances our rubber guard snake dressed for Christmas. She almost died this morning. John got a call from the office saying-Stay in your bus, do not to outside there is a snake under the bus and they were sending someone to kill it. John reassured her it was rubber, but he said  it was 45 degrees, snakes don't come out when it is cold. I look our and there is a guy staring at the snake from a distance. John goes out and the guy starts yelling, DON'T COME OUT, DON'T COME OUT-SNAKE!. John laughed, picked up the snake. The guy and the guy in the golf cart who came to kill her both laughed. I put the ribbon on after that so she would not look so threatening. Today we drove up to the top of Mt Lemmon. It is 7,000 feet higher than Tucson, in 26 miles. We started in the Sonoran desert zone. 

Cool rocks on the way up. Looking back at Tucson below.

One of the many hoo doos on the way up. There was someone climbing this one. There were patches of snow in the shade on the way up. Big traffic jams at each one. We decided to do as everyone else was and I took a photo of John in the snow.

At the top was the Mt Lemmon ski area. It is not open yet this year. Burnt trees near the road from a previous forest fire.

Looking down into Bear Canyon. It is next to Sabino Canyon we hiked in yesterday. It has water in it sometimes, so there are trees. Looking up Bear Canyon.

Looking down Bear Canyon. On the other side of the ridge to the right is Sabino Canyon, we hiked in it yesterday. Back in the Sonoran desert on the way back down.

Looking up a canyon from the road on the way back to Tucson. The ski area was closed and blocked off. These two signs were there, one said NO SNOW PLAY, authorized personnel only and North Pole closed. Flowers on the side of the road on the way down. This graph on the bottom shows the elevations and climate zones you go through on the 26 mile drive.