Two addresses on North Secret Springs Drive hold most of Dove Mountain's calendar this season. At 14810 is the Wild Burro Trailhead, the way into Tortolita Mountain Park's 29-mile trail system. Just up the road at 15000 is The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. That is where the restaurant once called CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar has come back as Core, A Sonoran Grill.
The timing matters because of a third piece of Dove Mountain that is partly closed this winter. The Golf Club at Dove Mountain is usually a 27-hole club. Its Tortolita nine is closed for renovation until early spring. Until it reopens, the busiest stretch of the season runs between the trailhead and the resort lobby.
The fairways are short a nine until April
Jack Nicklaus designed The Golf Club at Dove Mountain as three nine-hole courses, called Saguaro, Tortolita and Wild Burro, that pair up into different 18-hole rounds. A $15 million, three-phase renovation is working through them one at a time. Saguaro has reopened after Phase One. Its greens were resurfaced and reseeded, its white-sand bunkers were reduced and reshaped, and new forward tees were added.
Phase Two is now underway on Tortolita. The Clubs of Dove Mountain project timeline calls it roughly a 10-month job, and the developer projects completion by early April 2027. Wild Burro comes next, in Phase Three. So from now through the holidays and into spring, the club has fewer pairings to offer than usual. Weekends that would normally be built around a tee time have more room for other plans.
The Wild Burro Trailhead calendar fills a good part of that room.
A trailhead that keeps a calendar
Marana's trail page lists Wild Burro as one of the entry points to Tortolita Mountain Park. This season, Discover Marana lists a recurring series of organized outings that all start from the trailhead lot.
| Outing | Dates | Time | Cost and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonoran Desert Education Hike | Thursday, Nov. 5; Thursday, Dec. 3 | 8–10 a.m. | Free; 2 to 3 miles with minimal elevation gain |
| Trail Crew for a Day | Wednesday, Nov. 4; Wednesday, Dec. 9 | Nov. 4 session 7–11 a.m. | Free; registration required |
| Guided Hike in the Tortolitas | Saturday, Nov. 21; Saturday, Dec. 19 | 8–11 a.m. | Free |
| Sonoran Desert Geology Hike | Monday, Dec. 21 | 8 a.m.–noon | $5.25 residents, $6.56 non-residents; subject to weather |
By the time this post is out, the first-week November sessions will be over or about to start. The schedule repeats in December, though. There is a free education hike on the first Thursday, a volunteer trail day the following Wednesday, a three-hour guided hike on the third Saturday, and the geology hike on the Monday of Christmas week. The Nov. 21 guided hike is the next big date. Event pages like these can change, so check the listing the week of any outing.
All of these hikes start between 7 and 8 a.m. and end by midday, which leaves the evening open. The next address up Secret Springs Drive is where the evening options are.
What Core turned into
The Ritz-Carlton now calls Core, A Sonoran Grill a steakhouse inspired by the landscape, ingredients and people of the desert, one that tries to look "beyond traditional interpretations of Southwestern dining." On the restaurant's own site, Chef David Valencia describes a menu "built from hundreds of decisions," centered on ingredients with "a sense of place and a connection to the Sonoran Desert."
The supplier list names who those ingredients come from:
- Duncan Family Farms for produce, from a grower that makes its own compost and rotates crops
- Hook to Fork for responsibly sourced seafood
- Hayden Flour Mills for heritage grains, stone-milled in the Arizona desert
- LOMO Ranch beef, which anchors the steak side of the menu
The dinner menu mixes steakhouse standards with regional dishes. LOMO Ranch filet, New York strip, ribeye and tomahawk share the page with spaghetti in Sonoran-pepper butter, a guajillo-seasoned lobster bisque, and a mole soufflé served with blue-corn-tortilla ice cream.
The room changed too. House of Form in Phoenix led the design, using colors drawn from monsoon skies, desert sand, patina green, saguaro bloom, canyon red and aged copper, with textures meant to suggest weathered rock and erosion. The plates are handmade. Phoenix ceramic artist Christiane Barbato's Blue Door Ceramics developed the dinnerware with the chefs, one piece at a time.
According to the restaurant's hours page, dinner runs Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 9 p.m., and breakfast and brunch are served daily from 7 to 11 a.m. Core recommends booking ahead, online or by phone at 520-572-3074.
Because the daily brunch runs until 11, it fits after one of the morning hikes. The Saturday guided hikes end at 11, so on those days dinner is the better match.
How an evening lines up at 15000 Secret Springs
The resort's other evening programs fit around Core's 5:30 dinner seating. The Ritz-Carlton's dining page lists the nightly Spirit of Adventure Celebration at 5:15 p.m. on the Ignite Lounge patio. A Native American flutist plays traditional songs to mark the end of the day, and the program lasts about 25 minutes. That leaves time to walk from the patio to a dinner reservation.
On other nights, the same page lists Sushi Nights at Ignite, Thursday through Saturday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., with an à la carte menu from Chef Paul. It also lists the Agave Experience on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m., a flight of three agave spirits paired with a dish called the Five-C's of Arizona. The Agave Experience requires reservations. Mixology classes run Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.
The holiday stretch, in order
Late November is when the resort calendar and the town calendar overlap. In date order:
- Saturday, Nov. 21, 8–11 a.m. Guided Hike in the Tortolitas from Wild Burro Trailhead, free.
- Thursday, Nov. 26, 6–9:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Dinner at Core, with a Sonoran-inspired menu priced à la carte. This is the relaunched restaurant's first Thanksgiving.
- Friday, Nov. 27, through Tuesday, Dec. 29. The Life-Size Gingerbread 4x4 and Cacti Candy Wonderland, on display in the resort lobby.
- Saturday, Nov. 28, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Desert Themed Sugar Cookie Decorating, complimentary.
- Thursday, Dec. 3, 8–10 a.m. Sonoran Desert Education Hike, free.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 2–9 p.m. The Town of Marana's Holiday Festival & Tree Lighting at the Ed Honea Marana Municipal Complex, 11555 W. Civic Center Drive. The tree-lighting show starts at 6 p.m., with an encore at 8:30. The festival includes a Mistletoe Market with more than 35 local artisans, food vendors, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and free kids' activities.
- Wednesday, Dec. 9. Trail Crew for a Day, with registration required.
- Saturday, Dec. 19, 8–11 a.m. The second Guided Hike in the Tortolitas.
- Monday, Dec. 21, 8 a.m.–noon. Sonoran Desert Geology Hike, $5.25 for residents and $6.56 for non-residents.
The town says the festival's vendor list and stage schedule are still to come. Resort event pages can also change, so confirm reservations directly before you go.
The Marana festival is the one event on this list away from Secret Springs Drive. On Dec. 5 the season's center moves down to Civic Center Drive for an afternoon and evening. By early April, the developer expects Tortolita to reopen and the Golf Club to have all three of its nines again.
At Tierney Lococo Team, we follow these details because they shape how a week in Dove Mountain actually goes, from Saturday hikes to which restaurant reopened and when. If you're hosting family this holiday season and want suggestions for that week, or you've been thinking about your own next chapter here, we'd be glad to help. Work With Us.