Trip report
Apr 3, 2016 — Although you can drive up to Mount Lemmon, I wanted to check out the trail system on the southern side of the mountain. The loop combination I did created a figure 8 and made hiking to the summit feel more of a rewarding process. If you want a longer loop from mountain base to summit of Mount Lemmon, check out this trip report.
I started from the Marshall Gulch Trailhead and headed along the Marshall Gulch Trail. This forested trail leads to a big trail junction at Marshall Saddle. I continued north along the Upper Aspen Trail and took a short detour to Mount Lemmon's summit (or at least as high as I could legally get before trespassing to the true high point). From here I continued west along the pretty rim and descended Lemmon Rock Trail, which led to the Wilderness of Rocks Trail. I now had to ascend a few hundred vertical feet to get back up to Marshall Saddle, completing the top part of the figure 8. The Wilderness of Rocks Trail had a lot of great rock formations and scenery. Once at Marshall Saddle, I headed south along the Aspen Trail, which had some great views to the rest of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and made it back to the trailhead.