The new rescue locator at the Oracle State Park.
The Oracle State Park is currently in the process of making some updates to their trails. The first of those updates will be Rescue Locators throughout the trails. This is considered to be Phase 1 of the trail updates, and it will be a collaborative effort between Oracle State Park, Friends of Oracle State Park, and Pinal County Search and Rescue teams. The program consists of signs placed on trails at specific points that will be numbered to indicate location, it will also give a number for the park office, and what to do in the case of emergency.
Talks for this project began around mid-July, early August.
“Our Vice President of our friends group used to be the trail volunteer here for many years,” began Oracle Park Manager Sinda Sutton. “Him and I were having a discussion, because as a team, my staff and I, we had talked a while ago about going through and inventory all of our benches, and our signs and numbering them. Well, he had moved up to Washington, and one of the trails there had the rescue locator signs. So, him and I are chatting about this project that we were thinking about trying to do, and he mentioned that to us, and so he kind of started to do some research and talking to some of those parks up in Washington, and he got information from them on how they got started, and so we just kind of took it and ran with it for here in Arizona.”
The rescue locator signs are still currently being placed strategically around the park trails, with the inner circle of trails being finished. The outer circle of trails is aimed to be finished by the beginning of November. The Friends of Oracle State Park donated the $1,500 it took to purchase the rescue locator signs.
A map with the locations of the rescue locators.
Phase two of the trail upgrades focuses on making upgrades to the actual trails themselves.
“We are going to go through and start assessing the trails, so that is phase two of it, is going through and indicating priorities. So, that’s us and volunteers, and anybody, really, that we can get to help. Going out, taking one of our little forms that we have built, and indicating areas that are really bad. Then we are going to go through and start cleaning up some of the erosions, because some of the trails are really eroded at this point. There are some old stairs that have been in place that need to get the wood replaced, so we’re going to go through and replace the wood as well. The Friends of Oracle State Park are helping us by providing funding for materials that we’re going to need,” added Park Manager Sutton.
If the trails are in rough enough shape, there is a potential that they will call contractors that specialize in trials to come make the upgrades. The park is currently looking for more trail volunteers to come out and assess the park trails. Anyone interested in that should reach out to the park and speak with volunteer coordinator Michael Bain. If you are looking to join the Friends of Oracle State Park or make a donation to the trail project, you can find more information at friendsoraclestatepark.org
Park Manager Sutton closed stating, “We’re really wanting to be part of our community, and we’re hoping that this project in general just really sparks peoples interest to come out and visit us more.”