Scenic drive to Detroit lake

This text is under construction............ Oracle is a small town on the north side of the Santa Catalina mountains with some history. Oracle State Park, which is only open on weekends, has some nice hiking trails and some historical structures. The Santa Catalina mountains ramp down to the north and end at Oracle. Looking across the valley to the east, there is another mountain range.

On the drive up to Oracle, the Santa Catalinas are on the right, with lots of scenic views of the Canyons along the east facade of the Santa Catalinas. You also can see the Tortolinas on the left as you go through Oro Valley on the way to Oracle.

Going out toward Oracle state park, there are some scenic rock formations scattered around the boundary areas near the national forest. You can drive southeast from Oracle along the forest roads to access the hiking trails in the national forest. Unfortunately, the quality of roads is generally not very good on the east side of the mountains. East of Oracle is San manuel, Az. That community started as a company town for the copper mine that was bought out by an Austrailian mining company and then shut down.

When we visited Oracle, we had lunch at the Oracle patio Cafe, and enjoyed our lunch. We have our dog pearl, who we take everywhere, and this restaurant accomodates that philosophy, and their food and service is pretty good, and prices are reasonable.