The road to the top of Kitt Peak remains closed to the public more than year after a wildfire damaged parts of the highway.
The Arizona Department of Transportation is still replacing the guardrails along an 8-mile stretch of Arizona 386 that was burned by the 29,482-acre Contreras Fire in June of 2022.
The work began in March and is expected to last until late October. The project's budget is $3.3 million.
Until then, the road is only open to authorized personnel, including staff members at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Lars Lindberg Christensen is head of communications, education and engagement for the National Science Foundation’s Tucson-based National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab for short, which operates the observatory.
He said NOIRLab officials are hoping to gradually reopen the observatory for daytime visits in late September or early October, as soon as it is safe to do so.
Evening events such as the Nightly Observing Program should resume soon after, though he said advance registration will likely be required during the first month or two “as we ramp up.”
“We’re aware that many people are eager to come visit Kitt Peak by car, bicycles or even on foot,” Christensen said in a written statement. “The public visits have been missed on the mountain by our staff and visiting astronomers. Unfortunately both the pandemic and the Contreras Fire made these visits impossible for safety reasons.”
Since the fire, the only way for the public to visit Kitt Peak has been through the observatory’s Overnight Telescope Observing Program, a guided experience with a starting price of $945 that includes dinner, dorm accommodations and access to four telescopes at the observatory on the Tohono O’odham Nation, 55 miles southwest of Tucson.
In the past year, just 36 “very thrilled stargazers” have taken part in the exclusive program, which is capped at four visitors per night and is only held around the time of the new moon, Christensen said.
The Contreras Fire was sparked by lightning in the Baboquivari Mountains on June 11, 2022, and forced the evacuation of Kitt Peak and the Tohono O’odham community of Pan Tak.
None of the 24 mountain-top telescopes burned, but three support buildings — a dorm, a cabin and a small shed behind the observatory’s fire barn — were destroyed before fire crews could contain the blaze with help from a monsoon rainstorm.
Photos taken after the fire swept across the peak showed patches of burned trees and brush within a few yards of some telescope domes. It was the largest fire to threaten the observatory since it was established in 1958, but it wasn’t the first.
In June 1970, lightning touched off several blazes that burned toward the peak, though roughly 20 Kitt Peak staff members stayed on the mountain and continued to work during the fire.
In July 2007, the Alambre Fire prompted firefighters to set up defenses around the telescopes on Kitt Peak but the 7,300-acre blaze never seriously jeopardized the observatory.
Tucson space photographer, Dean Salman takes amazing photos of the universe from Kitt Peak Observatory and around Arizona. Take a look at some of his work from beyond our Solar System
