One of my favorite state parks in Arizona is Oracle State Park. The park is a 4,000 acre wildlife refuge in the northern foothills of the Catalina Mountains. Oracle State Park was originally a 160-acre ranch owned by the Kannally family in the early 1900s, who came to Arizona from Sterling, Illinois. The property was first purchased by Neil and Lee Kannally, and they were later joined by sisters Lucile and Mary, and brother Vincent. None of the five ever married or had children. Over time, the ranch grew to almost 50,000 acres. Lucy was the last surviving member of the family. When she died in 1976, the ranch was willed to the Defenders of Wildlife, which later deeded the ranch to the Arizona State Parks Board. The Friends of Oracle State Park raises funds for the restoration, preservation and operation of this historic Ranch House and its grounds at Oracle State Park.
OSP has more than 15 miles of hiking trails with a variety of trail types, ranging from 3700 to 4600 feet in elevation. A four-mile section of the Arizona National Scenic Trail passes through the park. Here’s a link to a PDF map of all the park’s trails.
It also has served as a Center for Environmental Education and provides programming for all ages. I started volunteering at the park in 2003, serving as a program guide with the environmental education program for kids. The Copper Area News wrote an article about one of our programs in 2017.
In 2016 I started help with trail maintenance, which included cutting back overgrown vegetation and trees, as well as repairing eroded sections. At that time, very few of the park staff were regularly maintaining the trails, with the exception of the ones used for the environmental education programs, so many of the other trails were not in good shape. Before she retired in 2021, I worked on the trails with park ranger Jennifer Rinio, who started at the park when it first opened in 2001. I often recruited friends to help.
I’m no longer volunteering at the park, but I still occasionally do trail maintenance on my own or in preparation for the annual Oracle Rumble.
Now I go to the park several times a month to run and hike the trails – it’ll always be a special, magical place for me.
