If a cross-country road trip is on your bucket list, you’ll be delighted to know it can be done without ever leaving Arizona. Catalina Highway is under 30 miles long, yet features landscape diversity comparable to a drive from the Rio Grande to the U.S.-Canada border.

General Hitchcock Highway, more commonly known as Catalina Highway, is a 27-mile route that climbs from the desert floor in Tucson to the near-summit of Mount Lemmon.
Wikimedia Commons / AJ Yorio lightninghorse
In the road's short distance, it gains a whopping 6,000 feet of elevation.
Such a rapid ascent lends itself to some truly phenomenal landscape diversity.
Wikimedia Commons / Debbie Kriegel
In fact, you'll drive through an entire continent's worth of terrain in just 90 minutes!
Your adventure begins on Tanque Verde Road in Tucson, and the first few miles consist of typical Sonoran Desert ecology.
Wikimedia Commons / WClarke
Subtle shifts in vegetation begin to occur as you wind up the Santa Catalina Mountains, such as fewer Saguaros and more scrub brush.

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About 18 miles in, the rugged desert landscape becomes a distant memory as ponderosa pines begin lining the roadway.
Wikimedia Commons / Joekoz451
Lush, evergreen woodlands soon give way to the towering, whimsical aspens that categorize the Flagstaff area.
In little more than the blink of an eye, you've gone from lowland desert to alpine forest, with several other ecosystems in-between.
Wikimedia Commons / Ivgotit
It's the equivalent of traveling from the Rio Grande to the U.S.-Canada border!
The highway ends at Summerhaven, a charming mountain community.
Wikimedia Commons / Philcomanforterie
Stop by Cookie Cabin, pictured here, for a hearty meal. Oh, and bundle up—it may very well be 30 degrees cooler than when you got in the car.
If the drive is a little too short for your liking, there are several scenic overlooks where you can pull off.
Wikimedia Commons / Nelo Hotsuma from Rockwall
The first one you'll encounter is Windy Point, which offers sweeping panoramic vistas of Tucson. Others are sprinkled along the drive, but none quite compare in vastness or magnificence.

Visit the U.S. Forest Service website to learn more about the highway.

Have you ever driven Catalina Highway? If so, which landscape is your favorite? Let us know in the comments, and check out our previous article for an epic natural wonder tucked away in Arizona’s higher elevations.

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Catalina Highway, Catalina Hwy, Arizona, USA