Mt. Lemmon area roads closing until March

The Santa Catalina Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest will shut its roads and day-use sites until March of next year, due to expected hazardous driving conditions.

While the main road to Mt. Lemmon will remain open, unless weather dictates otherwise, the forest anticipates that heavy snowfall on seasonal roads will necessitate closures.

Tentatively, Coronado says the roads will reopen on March 1, but that it subject to change, as always, if weather conditions render them unsafe.

A release from the forest offered greater detail:

Roads and day use sites affected by the seasonal closure include lower, middle, and upper Control roads; Marshall Gulch Road; lower and upper Bear Wallow roads; Bigelow Road; Incinerator Ridge Road; Organization Ridge Road; the road into General Hitchcock and the Lemmon Rock Road to the Mt. Lemmon summit above Ski Valley. Roads into Rose and Spencer canyon campgrounds were closed at an earlier date when the recreation areas closed for the season.

The roads remain open to hikers, cross country skiers, bicyclists and other non-motorized users. Lower elevation recreation sites will be open for public use, including Molino Basin Campground, Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Area, and Peppersauce Campground.