- Big, long distance.
- Open design allows wind to make course more difficult.
- Beautiful scenery.
- Great course layout, no fairways cross each other.
- The few art baskets add to the difficulty and creativity of the course.
- NEVER CROWDED!

- Only a couple holes have substantial elevation changes (3,6,18). I would like more.
- Blackberries on the borders of a couple holes make it easier to lose discs.
- Beginners will be frustrated by the distance of this course (especially if they are comparing it to cornwall park).
- Art baskets (some people don't like them).
- The GRASS! From late April to Mid July this course becomes very difficult to play (without losing discs) with 3ft tall grass surrounding the fairways.

Beautiful Scenery, Wide open fields, Art Targets, Nice Laid out course. Nice mix of Long, Medium, and short holes. Few holes with elevation change ( throwing off ridge, over hill etc)
Friendly Locals, and plenty of chances bump shoulders with wild life.

Grooming! Depending on the time of year you can be wading through 4' tall hay fields if you fall off the fairway. Not enough trash cans although having more doesn't always stop people from being pigs. Art Targets they are good and bad... but I am more of a traditionalist I would like to seek real baskets and maybe have the art be an alt basket.

This is an awesome course that covers the area of an old farm. I ran across large garter snakes, Elk tracks and plenty of chipmunks, Squirrels and other birds. I really enjoyed playing this course. I will be the first to tell you to play it safe on this course and play the course not make the course play to you. I lost some very nice champ plastic on this course. You win some and loose some.

Totally unique course with a great layout that I will play and enjoy every time I visit the area. After reading the reviews about lost disc dangers, I played this course very conservative - choosing my discs carefully and playing safe shots as much as possible. When I played they grasses were just starting to get mowed, so the 1st thrower on most of the holes threw, then went out to find their disc with the other spotting from the teebox, then spotted for the other before throwing again. Worked just fine, didn't lose any discs, and only took a little more time - no prob. On 13, I would recommend someone go out and stand on the hill and spot for the others in your group, since hard throwers may have a tough time finding their discs on any throw - good or bad. If you pay attention, the high grass/weeds/etc is not much of a problem and if you treat the blackberries like water hazards that you WILL lose a disc in, I think you will find this course an enjoyable challenge. I walked out of the 18th saying to myself that this was the most FUN I've ever had playing a round and I look forward to getting out there again as soon as I can.

Blackberries! Yeah, I wish they weren't a part of any course, but I must say that on a few holes, like the 1st, they only play a major problem to those who MUST throw at the basket off the tee. I recognized the danger, chose a disc that would lay down before the big thicket, then threw a safe 2nd shot over it and put it right near the basket - what's the prob? Similarly #8 was one that you could not overthrow more than a little bit without having a problem, but lay a nice shot up near the hole, then lay a nice floater into the basket instead of trying to hammer one home, and you're golden. Sure, I would've liked #6 to be cleared of grass/weeds like in the photos, but treated with caution, it played just fine. The only real cons here are the ones you make yourself.

Okay, I'll admit that traditional baskets are my preference usually, but the art baskets here are pretty cool! I'd like to see this course have 18 traditional baskets sometime in the future, but there's enough room out there to make a "dual" course with each hole having a choice of an art target or a traditional basket. And, rather than placing the two together, there's enough room to make very different placements for each - kind of like a traditional A/B tee setup but backwards. I'll be the first to offer to donate another art basket - I've got some old VW parts around here that would make a cool one - let me know!!

The course is on old farm land and the buildings from that are still around to make it a one of a kind disc golf destination. The views of the mountains and the wildlife make it worth the drive by itself. An excellent mix of shorter technical holes with huge fairway drives perfect for the longest of throwers. I have played here many times and rarely have I ran into other people playing the course. There are several epic holes here with only a couple of duds.

With all of the good there is as much bad which keeps my rating below 4. The grass gets really really tall and the sticker bushes are on alot of the holes which make this course a disc eater. There are not a lot of signs directing you to the next basket and it can be frustrating for a first timer. The tee pads are just horrible, they are gravel but some are sloped up hill or short or some other flaw. It's a really long walk and there is not a lot of places to sit down at.

This course has the potential to be a 4-5 star course with some of the cons I have mentioned being taken care of. Bring some food and water with you because it takes a while to play and there is no shade so playing during summer it gets hot very fast. Still this is a worth while place to play and I recommend checking it out at least once.

The pros include the usual suspects, good parking, easy to find, a porta potty. NSRA is set on a unique piece of land. One of the best things about playing disc golf is being able to explore a off the grid places. NSRA fits that bill perfectly with it old barns rolling hills and Washington overgrowth, mixed with open and mostly vacant lots. There are a handful of shots on this course that standout in my mind. The holes that are lacking in creative shots are either long or have an art target to keep things interesting.

From the creek, the mountains, to the old farm buildings, the view in every direction was amazing. The pictures back me up. Number fifteen is one of my favorite holes in WA, with the basket perched on top of a hill maybe 300 feet away, throw it short and the blackberry monster eats it. I liked the tree window across a street on fourteen. The basket placement on seven and seventeen's fairway, and eighteen's tee-box.

Being out in the open invited the wind into the round, and it drastically drained the fun factor. For non Washingtonians who may not know, berry vines are a horrible place to lose a disc. The number four basket is in front of a hillside covered in them, which makes for a scary approach shot. I fell in the mud along the hillside on number six and was given multiple painful vine scratches on my rear. I threw into berry vines on number twelve and I reached in to retrieve my disc and it found barbwire, and no joke, the barbwire was no match for the vines. The long holes were boring, perhaps it was the wind, but I felt like I was just chucking out in a cow pasture. The group I was with dogged those art targets so bad, and I understand the need to ring them off chains, there no substitute, no matter how cool the target is. (Which they are). The tee box situation is lacking here, cement would be great, when I played they were mostly just big puddles that I teed off from the side of.

What does NSRA mean? Anyone? This course is long so bring water, maybe have a picnic in the back. I go back and forth with my grade here. There are some great shots here with some good pin placements and unique tee box looks. Then, there are cow pasture holes. The mud, the wind, the rain had my pants weighted down and the course gave me about twenty blackberry vine cuts. In the end I graded it like I did feeling optimistic that the course will do noting but improve.

There is ample space here. Big armed throwers (350' plus) will really like it. There's open range, woods, elevation and lots of blackberry bushes. It was really well marked in October making it easy to follow for the most part. The 6 ART baskets lend a fanciful touch to the course. The teepads are currently dirt but there are wooden forms lying next to most of them so I think something is happening in that regard. My favorite hole was # 15. I think it was called Finnigans Gully. A 322' shot across a gully to a basket semi-protected by trees. And finally, my favorite feature of this course! Each basket has a large number sign welded to the top, visible from 350 feet. Why doesn't everyone do that?

There are three, I think, teepads in which you release on the uphill. Please level these out when installing the new ones. No-one likes teeing off on the uphill. I completely skipped # 16. Playing by myself, I felt the risk-reward of losing or spending a lot of time searching for my disc wasn't worth it on this blackberry surrounded fairway. About the ART baskets-Normally I don't really care for gimmicky baskets..see Lake Stevens review. But for the most part, these were cute and clever. However, I can in the future see this as a tournament level course and I don't see serious tournament players wanting to compete on these baskets.

This course will be changing it's face in the future. New teepads are going in. The county has dug hundreds of holes for planting native trees (cedars, firs, hemlocks) and on the day I played, county workers were busy spraying the blackberries. Yeah, kill the bastards, I say! Kill the blackberries not the county workers. Five years from now, this course should have a whole new look and feel to it.

It's a disc golf course.

Everything else. Unmowed grass taller then me in the fairways, bees, thorns, unmarked, blind holes, impossible to navigate.

This review is short just to point out the current course conditions. Do not bother coming here out of your way without contacting a local to make sure it's playable.

This course has limitless potential. Beautiful long drives, some tricky little quirks, a very scenic trail between tees. The course also features a nice look at the surroundings of old Northern State Mental Hospital, a somewhat grim slice of local history.

Without upkeep (mowing on fairways in summer) this course is all but unplayable without a squadron of disc spotters. The neck-high grass and impenetrable brambles swallow up disks making disc hunting the object, rather than the course goals. Even very straight, well placed shots often eat up long minutes of searching. Sometimes $18 disk get eaten up,,, ouch. Skagit Parks and Rec.(the official custodians) say they will mow at some point but... uh... the summers half gone, folks!

If you'd like to contact Skagit Parks and Rec. to let them know that some course maintenance is in order (immediately,)
You can tell them so personally by emailing:
[email protected]

lots of open space with various pockets of trees. Good elevation changes. The views of the mountains and the wildlife makes for a great experience. There are a good handful of technical shots and if your a big arm thrower you'll love it.

There are a few danger areas with thick thorn rambles. Tee pads are only gravel and there are no signs. Still some work left to be done.

Please take course with a grain of salt. It is a very youg course which was publicly open on September of 07. Yes there needs to be some work as far as signs and beches but it will come over time. It can get quite overgrown at times so feel free to contact me for current conditions.

NSRA has hit the big time with level, concrete tee pads now!! Tee #1 still has a gravel puddle, but that's easy to work around and soon to be remedied. The custom targets are a playful touch, but most players want standard baskets, so that's what you get on every hole. Some art targets remain for those who are in a playful mood, but the standard baskets are close by for the rest of us. The trees, the blackberry thickets, and the various slopes give plenty of incentive to throw carefully, but there are few places where you're likely to permanently lose your pet driver. The blackberry thickets have been so hacked by golfers looking for discs that they are thoroughly networked by trails. The thickets look horrendous from a distance, but you can nearly always walk to your disc. Nearly. The park is large enough that you can't throw out of bounds unless you really work at it. Open fields around the parking lot give you virtually limitless space to learn the characteristics of a new driver, or just to warm up.

Wildlife adds a nice touch - in the winter the course is thick with fresh elk tracks, bald eagles and trumpeter swans cruise overhead, and big hawks skim the fields surrounding the parking lot. Owl pellets full of little white bones litter the ground under the cedar tree at hole 12. I spoke to a man whose dog had recently flushed a cougar from the blackberries behind hole 4.

Your first drive parallels the only path from the parking lot into the main area of the park. On a nice afternoon, you'll wait for families strolling into and out of the park, oblivious to your impatience to get started. (After Hole 1, there's much better separation between discgolfers and other park users.) It's wet in the winter; I play in lightweight hiking boots. A line at the bottom of the map says something about 6 miles. The course is long, but not that long! You'll walk close to 2 miles; the actual fairways total about 6,000 feet.

The course is new this winter (2007-2008), and so am I; walking it inspired me to buy my first discs. It still has rough edges, but is eminently playable, especially if you print the map found under the Links/Files tab.
4/28/14: Along with the concrete tees have come some course changes not yet reflected in a new course map. I couldn't find the 2nd tee until someone on the course showed me. (walk up the road N from the 1st basket and look left for new trails into the brush. The second trail is better.)
This is an excellent course under certain winter conditions. One of my best days was when the mud was frozen solid - great traction on slopes that are sometimes to slippery. Once I played in 2" - 4" of snow. I carried only bright-colored discs and never had to spend time searching for one, which is saying something, considering how poorly I throw. Winter is also best for wildlife. If you drive from out of county, you are pretty much guaranteed to see flocks of swans by the time you arrive, and probably an eagle or three. Elk are hard to find in person, but you're bound to see lots of tracks and poop, even down by the parking lot.
Many tees and holes were moved this spring, and it's a bit rough for now where brush was hacked out to accommodate the changes.
While the thickets are much better than when I started in 2008, some players still carry a machete or lopping shears.

The course is challenging and well designed. The baskets are great and the 6 art targets are both original and creative. This course is full of possibilities due to the endless acres surrounding the course. When playing, one must be able to do a little of everything from big throws to precision shooting. Some of the holes are not very forgiving so sink that putt. The backdrop of the skagit valley and cascades is breathtaking which allows for a truely unique experience. Pin placement on several holes are guarded and present challenging putts. Course flow makes sense, as it brings you back to the start. The holes are spread througout several acres and makes great use of the elevation.

The one thing that could quickly improve the course is installing cement tee pads, or atleast flattening the gravel pads for a smoother release. Tee pad # 5 has players releasing uphill which makes it difficult at times. Lack of maintenance can be an issue at times as well, especially during the summer months.

The designer of the course is usually seen out on the course and is always willing to show you around or even play a round, which says a lot about him. He is truely genuine and is always open to new ideas to better serve the discgolf community. He also carries discs for sale so be on the lookout! Also, there are tournaments on the third (random doubles $6/person) and fourth (singles $8/adv $12/pro) weekend of each month during the winter. The first and second weekend same format but held at Mossy Roc in Bellingham, WA.