Popular Tumamoc Hill on Tucson’s west side will be closed to walkers for two weeks beginning Jan. 22 while a complete repaving of the 1½-mile road up the hill is underway.
The repaving is needed to make the road more passable for walkers and researchers with the Desert Laboratory at Tumamoc, which is located high on the hill.
Tumamoc is an 860-acre ecological reserve and U.S. National Historic Landmark owned and operated by the University of Arizona in partnership with Pima County.
“We see this as a huge opportunity to improve a road that has outlasted its time,” said Ben Wilder, director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc.
“After more than three decades, the new road will look and feel better to those who use it to exercise, and it also will assist with the Desert Lab’s mission of research and education,” Wilder said.
The Desert Laboratory was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1903. It has been the site of ecological research on plants, animals and other features for more than a century.
Wilder said a core group of 20 to 30 researchers drive “very slowly” and carefully up the narrow road to the lab’s buildings.
“We also recognize how important Tumamoc Hill is to the community that walks and uses the road for exercise,” he said.
The public access hours to the road are now 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. (See related information about alternative walking sites in the Tucson area that will be available during the closure of the road.)
Meanwhile, plans are in the works for a visitor center at the base of the hill, Wilder said.
REPAVING COSTS
The cost of the repaving work is approximately $200,000, according to a news release from the University of Arizona.
The UA will invest half the amount, with the UA College of Science raising the rest through a crowdfunding campaign at crowdfund.arizona.edu/tumamocroad
To encourage giving, Edith Sykes Lowell and David Lowell are providing a dollar-for-dollar match up to $50,000. Sykes Lowell is the granddaughter of Godfrey Sykes, one of Tumamoc Hill’s early scientists.
