Ample concrete pads, solid baskets. 10/10

Amount/Use of elevation 9/10. There's a lot of elevation change on this course, especially on the front 9 through the woods. The back 9 has large elevation changes on some holes but they are more gradual slopes, there is still good variety though.

Use of obstacles 8/10. This course does an amazing job using the available obstacles on the front 9. On the back 9 they didn't have a lot to work with. It feels like they could have been a little more creative with the few trees in the open.

Decisionmaking 8/10. Many technical holes have multiple routes for how to play them, and the road comes into play on some of the more open holes which makes you think about your shot.

Alternate basket positions 8/10. Almost every hole has at least one alternate position, and most of them change the hole pretty significantly, especially on the wooded holes.

Variety of distances 7/10. Just looking at distances on the holes it looks like this course should be 10/10 in this category, there are several holes over 500' and several holes under 300'. The reason I didn't is that all of the open holes are on the long side while all of the short holes are the more technical ones, and this also means the short holes are all grouped together and there are several long holes in a row down the stretch, so it doesn't feel as varied as it is. The course underwent a minor redesign in spring 2018 that removed all 3 of the shorter holes on the back 9 (combining two into another massive hole and removing the other completely).

Variety of openness 7/10. There is a good mix of openness, the only reason I'm knocking this one is that the technical holes are all bunched at the start and the open holes at the end rather than being interspersed throughout.

Disc finding 3/10. The chances of losing a disc here is high for a course without a water hazard. There are lots of blind shots in wooded areas on steep slopes with a possibility for rollaways. A couple holes on the back there's a chance of throwing into the municipal reservoir, especially on a windy day.

Challenging all levels 3/10. This is definitely not a course to bring beginners to, even when set short. Advanced players will probably find the back 9 pretty boring.

Comfort 3/10. The course is extremely hilly and somewhat treacherous on the front 9, especially off the fairway. The back 9 is very long without much shade. No benches on the course, there is a water fountain before the hole 16 tee that wouldn't be too far out of the way after 11.

Course maintenance 4/10. Grass is usually well mowed. However, multiple tee signs have been damaged or stolen. Lots of trash in the wooded areas despite a few trash cans being present.

Navigation 5/10. There is a map on the bulletin board, but there are some long walks between holes that aren't intuitive. Once you find the tee most holes are fairly straightforward but there are a lot of blind shots first time players will want to walk ahead to see (1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18).

Variety of shot paths 5/10. There are five holes that require left to right (4, 7, 9, 16, and 18) and three that require right to left (10, 11, and 15). 11 and 15 are very similar holes, hyzer around the reservoir. All of the left to rights except one are on the technical holes, while all of the right to lefts are on open holes. Would be nice to have more of a mix of these.

Challenge 8/10. The technical holes will challenge any players accuracy, while the open holes the primary challenge is distance and control in the wind

This course underwent a minor redesign this year, adding two new technical holes at the start. While the new holes are cool, it caused the 3 open holes on the back 9 to be removed/combined, so to me the open holes are more boring now as they are essentially all long. There are now 6 mostly open holes in a row over 400 feet, and 4 of them play over 600'. it was nice before to have more of a variety of distances on these holes. Several holes could be pretty treacherous to walk through, especially the 2 new holes which don't have any vegetation coming in on the fairways yet. For this reason it's definitely a course to avoid after recent rains. Hole 1 is a rolled ankle waiting to happen, definitely needs a leveled out path to walk. The park also isn't in the nicest area, be wary on some of the open holes near the road.

Front 9. Character. Views. Brilliant in the winter. Challenging.

The unusual traffic in the park can be unnerving. It a shame people dump trash on the course. Maybe not the best course to take a very casual player.

I really enjoyed this course. The layout I played was full of sharp rights on the front. I have a decent sidearm and a great turnover but these angles really made me think through laying up or placing shots or being creative. I played on a lovely day in December . I can only imagine how tight the lines are in Spring/summer. You can't just walk up to this course and chuck it, it will engage your brain. I liked the control required on the front 9 and the distance needed on the back 9. The back 9 is open but with lot's of risk reward with basket placement and the wind can be a factor. I struggled a little on the front because I played the angles aggressively. I had a few OB on the back 9 for the same reason. I am rhbh and drive 370. I think i shot +1. I could have been more conservative and scored better but I really wanted to take on the challenges this course has to offer.

Great course layout! Although the back 9 can get slightly repetitive, I was happy to have a break after playing the heavily wooded, hilly front 9. I don't think it got overly repetitive or boring at all.

First 9 have lots of fun technical shots. The elevation changes here are crazy and lots of fun to play around.

Gorgeous view of downtown KC from the park. This is a very pretty park, and it's also quite large.

Baskets all in place and in good condition. Multiple pin positions abound.

Concrete tees are in good shape, and the "wedge" angle tells you where you're throwing, which isn't always apparent (more on that to follow).

The hills in this park are used perfectly and there is a great amount of variety in shots here, especially in the front 9.

Not overly crowded, and not a lot of non-DGers out either.

Course was not maintained well at all when we played in late August. Trash and broken glass everywhere. Knee-high grass abounded, which meant there really weren't fairways per se on most of the back 9. It's bad when the tee pads are basically just slabs of concrete surrounded by tall grass.

Signage was nice when present (and it did tell you where to look for the next tee), but unfortunately many of them have been stolen or were otherwise not present. There are a few areas where navigation is not intuitive. Take a picture of the map with your phone, it's a life-saver.

Not to beat a dead horse, and I didn't really dock my rating for this, but this neighborhood around this course is bad. Probably marginally better than Swope, but I would NOT play here anywhere close to dark.

While I don't find the back 9 objectionable, I do believe they leave a slight something to be desired after seeing what the front 9 was. I don't really see any way they could have blended it any better and it wasn't a huge deal, but I see the point here.

Lots of OB roads throughout, and the road thru the park does get some use so you have to be semi-careful.

This course is in Old Northeast, fairly close to the Kansas City Museum. I got here by taking Independence Avenue (24 Highway) east from downtown, then turning left on Wabash and going the whole way into the park.

This is a great course, in my opinion. The front 9 were incredible and very memorable. The back 9 were average -- not horrible or boring, but just nothing I would drive this far into a very questionable part of town to play.

However, all things told, this course was well worth the play. Just keep your head on a swivel and enjoy the round. I wrestled between a 3.5 and a 4 on this course. At the end of the day, for the uniqueness of the experience, I think it's definitely worth a play.

However, I do have to dock a little bit for the ambience. Trash can absolutely be picked up and signage replaced, but when you can't even find 11's tee pad for 10 minutes because of the knee-high grass and there's a shady-looking dude in an Escalade just chilling with his car running right by the basket for 10...well, yeah, it DOES take something away from the game. I say this as a suburbanite -- many of you might not feel that way. But, if you're a fellow suburbanite, you know what to expect.

Again, I think this course is awesome, it was a blast, and absolutely worth the drive in from very suburban Lee's Summit. Give it a go! I would love to play here again and re-review if the grass has been mowed and trash somewhat picked up.

-front 9 is very scenic and has challenging technical shots.
-park is on a very nice piece of property
-tee pads are very large
-good chances to air it out
-lots of elevation
-it shows that a lot of work has been put into this park when you look at reviews on here from 2009 and before

-parking situation is terrible. too many chances to hit a car or have your car hit
-lots of chances to lose a disc between the fenced in area in the middle or down the side of the cliffs
-lots of trash in the woods
-other people using the park and being oblivious to DG players a strong possibility
-maybe too open on the back 9

this place to me is like a more spread out and open version of Water Works. When I played it, there were some people who basically just parked either in front of a hole or 25 feet from the pin (non DGers) This was just stupid and forces people to throw way out of the way. I would not recommend playing this course if there are a lot of non-DG people around but its a very nice course if its empty.

This is a huge park too btw, neighborhood argument for KC argument is so tired and mostly irrelevant.

This is really a tale of two halves. The first half of the course is wooded with big elevation changes, and the holes are a generally in the 200-400 foot range. I loved every one of these holes. You really see the "cliff" in Cliff Drive. The fairways were not unreasonably tight, but if you don't have a good drive that lands in the fairway, you have no shot at par.

The second half is mostly open and much longer, in the 400-800 foot range. More on those below.

Every hole has a concrete tee pad, and there are numerous pin positions on almost every hole (I think #9 only has one). The tee signs are very good, showing the various locations and distances. It was usually easy to narrow it down as to which location was being used because the short ones are obviously supposed to be visible from the tee.

Navigation here wasn't great. I had to pull up the map on my phone about every other hole to figure out which way to go. The back 9 is a little easier to navigate but a lot less interesting to play. Very few trees come into play. The challenge is mostly posed by the distance of the holes, and the OB areas (if you play the roads as OB, which is obviously the intent). There is some elevation on the back 9 (not nearly as much as the front 9), and the baskets are placed on slopes for challenging putting.

Some holes have alternate hole locations in use in addition to regular baskets. As a first timer, this was kind of confusing. But if I were a regular, I would definitely appreciate the opportunity for some variety on a couple holes.

I think this probably makes a good tournament course. The front 9 gives the edge to accurate, technical players, and the back 9 gives the big arms a chance to make up some ground. That said, I like wooded, technical courses with lots of elevation changes, and I wish more of the course was like the front 9. I'd give the front half a 4 and the back half a 2.5 or 3.

By the way, I didn't think the neighborhood was as bad as other reviews indicated, and I certainly didn't feel unsafe in the park. Keep in mind that many great disc golf courses are not in the best parts of town, and for good reason. Do you want lots of dog walkers, joggers, playground enthusiasts, and picnickers wandering through your course? Me neither. We'll keep this little gem to ourselves.

Several holes present an opportunity to use just about every shot imaginable. The holes up top offer a little elevation change, but the lower course was quite memorable and very technical forcing you to break out your best to thread one through the trees. Most holes seemed to be at or above the 300ft mark which is a refreshing change from a lot of other courses better suited for beginners.

I really don't have much to say that would take away from the great experience I had here. Perhaps the only thing I would caution is there are a few holes which I felt that pedestrians came into play and delayed teeing off as I don't like throwing at or near people.

Bring bug spray.

A good mix of woods and long open drives. It is a different layout that other courses. Great views over the river and the new bridge. Very long, new concrete tee pads.

Bad section of town. extremely windy, use heavy discs. Can loose disc in old retaining ponds ringed with wrought iron fence. It is dry, though. Needs better course markings.

Will definitely play this again, on next visit to KC.

Very different personality with wooded technical holes on the front nine, and open field/park-type holes on the back nine.

Nice, solid Mach baskets and very good concrete tees. Lots of different elements incorporated in the design such as elevation change, trees, and even a fenced off area at the top of the hill that I would guess you don't want to have to retrieve a disc from. The map on here is pretty accurate and makes navigation a snap.

My memorable holes:
1 - Right of the bat you have a technical, wooded hole with elevation change and distance. If you can thread your drive through the trees and get a lucky upshot, you can lay up for a three
2 - Tunnel shot downhill that looks fairly simple, but looks can be deceiving.
5 - Throwing uphill with trees all around. This would be a thrilling deuce if you could hit it.
8 - Throw out from some trees next to a cliff, then one of the baskets is hanging on chain, very cool.
12 - Hard, steep drop-off on the right, don't let your drive go there like I did. After about an hour of billy-goating I finally found it. BE CAREFUL!
13 - LOOOOONG hole. You can really stretch out and let it fly on this one.
14 - Sloping down left to right, and pretty long. You can go out right with a big hyzer and let it fade back it...if you have the distance. I, sadly, did not, and went right into the tree.
17 - Big downhill drive. Difficult to hug the road on the right and keeping it from going too far left for a long upshot.

Although the map on here is pretty decent, I still struggled finding a couple of the holes in the woods on the front nine. There are also no hole distances or layouts, so on several holes I had to walk them first and make sure I was throwing to the correct basket, and to even see where the basket was.

There are also no bathrooms, road parking, no bathrooms, and no indication of where hole one is. I had to drive around the loop a couple times before I located hole one's tee, since the map on here does not show where it is now.

This was a good, fun challenge, with just a few course-amenity type shortcomings. The DG here is excellent in spite of my 3.5 rating. With a little improvement in navigation, I could see this being a 4. Significant park upgrades would be required to make it higher than that though.

If you're in the KC area, this is a definite stop you should make. I would be careful though as it seems like this part of town is not the best. Also plan ahead and make sure you don't have to use the bathroom during your round.

Great Mix of holes
Woods not too woodedOpen not too long (sometimes)
CHALLENGING

Some of the holes are repetitive (holes 14-18)
I got some of the least lucky bounces off of trees ever
Not very easy to find your way around first time
Terrible signage
NO TEE SIGNS.
Very difficult to judge distance on many holes
Crossing of roads way too much

This course is really much beter than I thought. Blue Valley-esqe holes for the back 5, so you get the whole Blue Valley experience with none of the insane frustration and losing of discs in maddening rough. I had a good time even with a terrible round.

Good use of elevation changes to add difficulty. Woods are pretty tight on the front 9, demanding a little strategy to post a good score. Open back 9, but OB roads, along with well placed trees, add some challenge. Never crowded. I threw every disc in my bag, good mix of length, hyzer, anhyzer, elevation changes made for a very fun round of golf. Navigating the course was pretty easy if you follow the paths.

No bathrooms or parking area. Not the best neighborhood. No benches. Long, uphill walk from 10 to 11.

Overall, a very good course. Teepads have been finished since the first time I played here, just in time for Worlds, and it makes the course much nicer to play. I'm quite surprised this course isn't more crowded, as several holes were very memorable. Favorites include #1, 4, 5, 8, 12, 17. Definitely play this course if you're in the area, or couple it with WaterWorks or Wyandotte for a great day trip.

The front 9 has some of the coolest terrain I've seen so far. They're getting ready to pour t-pads for the Worlds.

Parking. Sketchy people in the hood, although a local police officer was very friendly and parked near our vehicle while we played the front 9. He looked happy to see a shiny new out-of-state vehicle there.

I wish #3 tee box was still at the top of the hill; that is a Sick shot! #1 has a cool new tee. Lastly, don't bring a knife to gun fight...

Cliff Drive is an appropriate name for this course as the front 9 plays amongst a very scenic cliff.
~ Great views of the City
~ Has both tight wooded holes and open holes
~ Nice shot variety - Makes you throw tight technical lines as well as allowing you to air it out.
~ Hole 2 is a great hole that makes you throw a very technical drive off a cliff through a corkscrewing wooded corridor to a nice green. Hole 17 is the best open hole as you bomb down a hill to a reachable pin 500+ ft away.

~ Natural tees
~ No Parking lot or facilities of any kind
~ Difficult Navigation
~ Very dirty course in a very sketchy neighborhood. The wooded holes looked more like a trash dump than a disc golf course.
~ Lack of layout balance - the course has a balance of wooded and open holes, but it lacks course balance with all the wooded holes stringed together followed by all the open holes stringed together.
~ The back 9 is wide open with sparse trees and all long bomber holes that tend to be tweeners

The course is worth a play. It could be championship quality with the addition of proper signage, concrete tees, and a slight modification to the back 9 to limit repetitiveness.

Course Level = Blue (most suitable for Advanced players rated 925-975)

Very good terrain variety- very well balanced mixture of terrain. 5 Woods/ 5 Grass/ 8 Mixed. The front 9 has all of the woods holes and the mixed terrain holes have thicker foliage. The back 9 is much more open and even the holes with foliage have more sparsely spaced trees and bushes. I liked the wooded holes the best, but the great grass with scattered large old growth trees were nice too. Big arms can air it out on the wide open grassy back 9 holes as well.
Scenic Cliffs- On some holes, like #2, if you go too far off the fairway you're off a steep cliff with a big drop off so that you're toast trying get back up through the trees. On other holes the cliffs are a beautiful natural background.
Great Elevation variety- A perfect split of 9 Up and 9 Down. There's change on every hole, and 4 holes have big elev changes of 21 to 27 ft..
There's a very active local club with a very good website and an active discussion board.
Some holes have bag hangers.
There are a few views of the city
I played in the early afternoon and there were some deer grazing in the grass on hole 13.

Navigation- When I played the course in Oct 08 the KCFDC website "Course Map" link took me to a very old map so it was very confusing and very hard to find my way around the new layout and to even figure out what hole I was on. At the KCFDC website for Cliff Drive, if you scroll down the page to the April 11, 2006 update and then click on the small map it will bring up a larger more up to date version (but tees 1 and 7 are in different places now.)
Tee signs- Most tee signs need to be updated to reflect the new layout. The front nine has some very basic laminated signs that could be upgraded.
Tee pads- A few concrete but mostly grass and dirt framed with railroad ties.
It would be helpful if the current basket position was marked on the holes that have several positions.

My favorite hole: 2. A downhill drive with a big drop of -27 ft, then there's steep drop off a cliff if you go too far right, and it ends with a cool green.

This is another very good KC course that's well worth playing.