Cycling stops in Tucson & the Sky Islands

26 places · 5 routes · Arizona, United States

Tucson's reputation rests on one road. The Catalina Highway leaves the eastern edge of town at saguaro height and climbs for about forty kilometres to Ski Valley, gaining the better part of 1,800 metres and passing out of the Sonoran Desert into pine forest on the way, a change of vegetation that would otherwise take a drive to Canada. Riders stack up at Le Buzz at the bottom before the climb and at the Cookie Cabin in Summerhaven after it, which is as close as American road cycling gets to a liturgy.

The rest of the riding fans out from there: Gates Pass and the Saguaro West loop to the desert museum, the long straight run south past the Titan silo to Madera Canyon, Kitt Peak's observatory road out on the Tohono O'odham Nation, and the mission of San Xavier del Bac standing white against the desert on the way home. Two hours east, Mount Graham's Swift Trail climbs 34 km into the Pinaleños, the biggest of the sky islands and the region's longest sustained climb. It stays rideable through the winter, which is why the training camps come.

Cafés

Boca Tacos Y TequilaCaféBOCA Tacos y Tequila is a scratch-kitchen Mexican restaurant on Tucson's Fourth Avenue, run by chef Maria Mazon, a Top Chef alum and James Beard Award semifi…El CharroCaféEl Charro Café is a Mexican restaurant in downtown Tucson, run by the same family since 1922 and billed as the nation's oldest continuously operating Mexican…El Güero CaneloCaféEl Güero Canelo is a Tucson institution for Sonoran hot dogs, started in 1993 by Daniel and Blanca Contreras from a small trailer on South 12th Avenue and no…Exo Roast Co.CaféExo Roast Co.Le Buzz CaféCaféLe Buzz Caffe is a breakfast-and-lunch café with a full espresso bar that has served Tucson since 1996, roasting its own coffee and baking its own pastries i…Mt. Lemmon Cookie CabinCaféMt.Posada JavaCaféPosada Java is a coffee shop at The Shoppes at La Posada, run by La Posada at Green Valley as the area's social hub.Presta Coffee RoastersCaféPresta Coffee Roasters is a Tucson specialty coffee roaster, with this location inside Mercado San Agustín, an open-air market on the city's west side.

Climbs, views & nature

Colossal Cave Mountain ParkCaveColossal Cave Mountain Park is built around one of the largest dry caves in North America, a 2,400-acre park southeast of Tucson also home to the 128-year-ol…Gates PassPass · 966 mMountain pass at 3,172 ft through the Tucson Mountains west of the city.Kitt PeakPeak · 2099 mKitt Peak (2,099 m) in Arizona's Sonoran Desert hosts Kitt Peak National Observatory, one of the world's largest collections of optical telescopes.Sabino Canyon Recreation AreaCanyonSabino Canyon Recreation Area lies in the Santa Catalina Mountains, where Depression-era CCC and WPA crews built the tram road, nine bridges over Sabino Cree…Saguaro National Park - Rincon Mountain DistrictNature reserveThe Rincon Mountain District preserves 92,000 acres of Sonoran Desert with giant saguaro cacti and high biodiversity.Saguaro National Park (Tucson Mountain District)National parkThis is the Tucson Mountain District ("Saguaro West") of Saguaro National Park, one of the densest saguaro forests in the Sonoran Desert.Sentinel PeakPeak · 884.2 mA 2,897 ft peak in the Tucson Mountains.

History & landmarks

Arizona State MuseumMuseum · TucsonArizona State Museum, founded 1893, preserves and displays archaeological artifacts from the region.Arizona-Sonora Desert MuseumZoo · TucsonA 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, and natural history museum founded in 1952, just west of Tucson.Biosphere 2LandmarkA 3.14-acre enclosed ecosystem built 1987–1991 to test whether humans could survive in a sealed, self-sustaining environment, research aimed at eventual spac…International Wildlife MuseumMuseumThe International Wildlife Museum permanently closed on January 11, 2024, after operating as a natural history museum since 1988.Madera CanyonLandmarkCanyon in the Santa Rita Mountains, 25 miles southeast of Tucson, with hiking trails, picnic areas, and campsites.Mission GardenGardenMission Garden is a walled, four-acre living agricultural museum at the foot of Sentinel Peak, on the site of the Tohono O'odham village of Cuk Ṣon and Tucso…Mission San Xavier del BacPlace of worship · TucsonHistoric Spanish Catholic mission founded in 1692 by Eusebio Kino, located 10 miles south of downtown on the Tohono O'odham Nation San Xavier Indian Reservat…Pima Air & Space MuseumMuseum · TucsonNearly 400 aircraft spread across 80 acres, one of the largest aerospace museums in the world.Saint Augustine CathedralCathedral · TucsonCathedral of Saint Augustine is the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Tucson, located downtown.Titan Missile MuseumMuseum · SahuaritaCold War ICBM silo south of Tucson, built in 1963 and deactivated in 1984.Tucson Museum of ArtMuseum · TucsonLarge art museum on a four-acre block in downtown Tucson's Presidio District, with 74,000 sq ft of space including 19th-century historic homes adapted for ga…

Climbs

Gates Pass4.2 km · 3.9%Kitt Peak19.8 km · 5.4%Madera Canyon20.9 km · 3.7%Mount Graham (Swift Trail, AZ-366)34.1 km · 5.2%Mount Lemmon (Catalina Highway)46.3 km · 3.7%
CLIMB

Kitt Peak

Tucson & the Sky Islands

Gradient by colour: under 3% 3–6% 6–9% 9%+

Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.

Kitt Peak is a 19.8 km cycling climb averaging 5.4% (+1079 m), rising from 986 m to 2062 m in Tucson & the Sky Islands.

The observatory climb: a highway finished in 1967 to haul a four-metre telescope to a summit the Tohono O'odham hold sacred, gated open only from 9 to 4. The harder, quieter counterpart to Mount Lemmon; Lionel Sanders took the Strava record in 39:11 at over 410 watts.

Kitt Peak
KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld
Kitt Peak
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Kitt Peak
Murray Foubister
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Where it bites

Steepest 500 m: 8.4% (km 17.5–18).

Road: paved throughout

kmtoavg
1998 m2.9%
21035 m2.5%
31074 m3.6%
41133 m6.2%
51160 m3.6%
61219 m4.5%
71291 m7.4%
81355 m6.8%
91421 m6.4%
101476 m5.7%
111539 m6.0%
121595 m5.8%
131660 m6.2%
141719 m6.3%
151785 m6.6%
161852 m6.7%
171916 m6.0%
181987 m7.3%
192049 m6.1%

What it’s like to ride

Highway 386 leaves the desert floor west of Tucson and climbs twelve miles to the Kitt Peak observatory with no shade and no services until the top, on a road so quiet that one rider counted two cars and three motorcycles on a Sunday morning. The grade is the whole character of it: steady, mostly 5 to 7%, with no real steep pitches, so you settle into a rhythm early and hold it while the road twists up through saguaro and scrub oak into the Quinlan Mountains. Near the top it comes around the opposite side of the mountain and the view opens over rock formations and plains that look like a John Ford western, the white dome of the Mayall 4 m telescope above you. The summit sits at about 6,875 ft on a peak the Tohono O'odham hold sacred, and the visitor center has restrooms with a water bottle fill station, snacks and drinks, and a picnic area. Plan around two things: the gate at the bottom only opens the road from 9am to 4pm, and the wind at the very top is dramatically stronger than anything you felt on the way up. The descent pays you back, steady enough that riders report barely touching the brakes.

History

Kitt Peak carries a road because of what sits on its summit. In March 1958 the Schuk Toak District Council of the Tohono O'odham approved leasing the mountain, Ioligam in O'odham, to the National Science Foundation, and an unpaved track served the new national observatory from 1958 to 1967. Arizona Daily Star photographs from May 1960 show crews blasting the roadbed off the mountain face, work the paper's archive puts at $2.45 million with 80 men, 18 Caterpillar tractors and engineers from the US Bureau of Roads. The paved highway cyclists climb today, State Route 386, entered the state highway system and was completed in 1967 so the components of the 4-meter Mayall Telescope could be hauled to the top, and it is still closed to the public from 4pm to 9am to protect observing conditions. In March 2019 the triathlete Lionel Sanders took the climb's Strava record in 39:11 at over 410 watts, three minutes inside Keegan Swirbul's 42:12.

Worth stopping near the climb

Kitt Peak<1 km

More climbs in Tucson & the Sky Islands

Gates Pass4.2 km · 3.9%Madera Canyon20.9 km · 3.7%Mount Lemmon (Catalina Highway)46.3 km · 3.7%Mount Graham (Swift Trail, AZ-366)34.1 km · 5.2%

Common questions

How long and steep is Kitt Peak?
Kitt Peak is a 19.8 km cycling climb averaging 5.4% (+1079 m), rising from 986 m to 2062 m in Tucson & the Sky Islands.
Where is Kitt Peak steepest?
The steepest 500 m averages 8.4%, between km 17.5 and km 18 of the climb.
What is the road surface like on Kitt Peak?
Kitt Peak is paved throughout.

Checked 13 August 2026

Part of: The vertical kilometre clubPart of: Roads built as statementsPart of: The climbs that never turn backPart of: Roads to the telescopes

Elevation from SRTM (NASA) · Road line + coordinates © OpenStreetMap contributors · Story adapted from Wikipedia and cycling-media reporting, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited per image · Wikidata

Places / Tucson & the Sky Islands / Kitt Peak

19.8 km · +1079 m · 5.4% avg · ~8.4% max · 986 → 2062 m

3%5%4%7%6%6%6%7%7%24681012141618km986 m2062 m

Photo: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Sources: OpenStreetMap