Oracle State Park will get a major makeover — with the addition of rental cabins, recreational vehicle sites, tent sites and new trails — now that a $4 million proposal for the work in Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive budget has been approved.
The budget allocation, approved on Friday, May 4, will pay for the new facilities, which are aimed at making the 4,000-acre park near Oracle an overnight destination. It currently is open only for day use.
Upgrades are expected to increase annual revenue by $1.2 million at the park, which now operates at a net annual deficit of $286,000, according to budget documents.
“The money becomes available on July 1, and then we have to start all the planning,” said Sue Black, director of Arizona State Parks and Trails.
“We have to be transparent in the process with a lot of public involvement,” Black said, noting that public meetings will be held so people can express their ideas and concerns about the planned work. “We’re very excited about it.”
Michelle Thompson, chief of communications for Arizona State Parks and Trails, said the agency will “form a technical advisory committee for planning the work and to help guide the decisions for when we will hold meetings to hear from members of the public.
“There are people who live near the park or have frequented the park over the years. We want to learn what they want to see and what they might not want to see in the park.”
She said the first of the meetings could take place by September of this year.
Planning and work to add the facilities “will probably be a two-year process,” Thompson said.
PROJECT PLANS
Patrick Ptak, a spokesman in the Governor’s Office, said earlier that the new facilities would include 30 recreational vehicle sites, 20 cabins and 20 tent sites. State Parks officials said those plans remain in effect. Pricing hasn’t yet been determined.
Thompson said the overnight accommodations at Oracle State Park are expected to relieve some of the demand at Catalina Sate Park north of Tucson, which commonly turns away would-be campers during peak seasons.
“Catalina is such a popular park,” she said. “It would be nice to have another overnight park in the area.”
ORACLE PARK FEATURES
Tucked in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains about an hour’s drive north of Tucson, Oracle State Park now has picnic areas and more than 15 miles of hiking and biking trails with access to the cross-state Arizona Trail. Plans call for adding trails, but the routes and trail lengths are uncertain.
The park land was once owned privately and later by the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife.
A centerpiece of the site is the 1930s Kannally Ranch House, which was owned by the family that donated the land to the Defenders of Wildlife.
Opened to the public in 2001, the park was closed because of budget cuts in 2009. It was reopened later, first on weekends only and later daily during daylight hours.
