The Steelhead DGC sits along the Trinity River in Willow Creek, CA. In addition to creating a great setting, the river also comes into play on a number of tee shots (5b and 6).

The course was recently increased to 15 holes and now presents an even better variety of obstacles and difficulty levels (some technical/short, some open/moderate distance, some with quite a bit of elevation change, some just plain easy).

All baskets, good signage and decent layout (you can find your way around this course without a guide).

There is a nice BBQ/Picnic area with plenty of shade for those hot summer days. While this area is sometimes be occupied, from my experience the course is generally empty.

Hole 5a short but very steep (you're basically scrambling straight up) and it may inhibit some people form being able to play holes 5a and 5b.

Practice basket is now the basket for the last hole.

Keep an eye out for Poison Oak. Weather can get pretty hot in the summer.

Beautiful weather in the summertime. Good variety for a small park.

Watch every shot, there are a ton of places for your disc to just disappear. Lots of poison oak and berry patches around.

This course makes a great little practice round if you are heading up to Ammon Ranch to play a REAL round. Consider this just a little appetizer to get your putter warmed up.

-Good mix of holes, Lefts, Rights, and Straight shots
-Multiple paths to choose from on some holes
-Beautiful Willow Creek flowing right next to hole 6 adds both to the beauty and challenge of the course.
-Short walk down a path between holes 5 and 6 to get to the river
-Practice basket
-All Baskets
-Good signage
-Some very challenging holes to get a 3 on.
-Some ace opportunities
-Playground for children
-Good for making a stop off the 299 while you're traveling through
-Easy to find, there's even a sign in town pointing you towards it
-Secluded and usually empty

-Poison Oak gets pretty bad on a couple holes
-Some holes too short and open.
-Only 9 holes* (10 if you know the extra hole)
-Blackberries can eat a disc or two on some holes
-Lefty favorable* (only a con in my book because I'm a righty)
-Slippery tee pads
-People going to the river sometimes park in the fairway of the new hole 9

I've played this course a bunch of times, and almost never ran into any other golfers out there, the only times I have, they have usually been people I know. It's a fun little course that makes good use of the land given. They had to move one of the holes recently, and though they made it harder, the fairway will sometimes have cars parked in it, which can be dangerous. This course was designed by one of the local disc golfers, Mike Belchik, a lefty, so the course is one of the few courses out there that is lefty favorable. That in and of itself could make the course worth a visit for any left handed golfers out there. On a hot day there's nothing better than a dip in the river, follow the trail between holes 5 and 6 to get there.

- This 9 hole course makes you work for what you get. A few of the holes are easy; but, the rest are serious golf holes. The pins are well guarded by either brush, OB, river, 'cliffs' and/or a combination of the bunch. Great tee-shots are required for realistic birdie oportunities on holes 4,5,6 - definately not gimmies.
- Baskets.

- The tee-sign distances didn't match the actual on ground distances. One sign said 320 and the hole had to be at least 450 - I had 160' upshot and I threw a decent drive.
- Dirt tee-pads were slippery - gravel on top of hard pack.
- Poision oak on a few holes - not a con for me, just letting you know.
- Could be tough to find your way around. I had locals guiding me, but I think I could have done it without them.

- This was a cool course I had to cross off my checklist before I left Humboldt. Living in Arcata, I wouldn't drive out of my way to play this course again, but would play it if I was traversing Hwy 299 again.
- This is one of the better 9-hole courses you could come across; but, if you are on a DG vacation and are wondering if you should drive out to play willow creek or play more rounds at the Redwood Curtain/Area 74... I would say, save the gas! You'll have more fun in the redwoods anyway.
My score: -2

1. beautiful setting and variety of shots
2. you will likely have the place to yourself
3. nice creek/river and some picinc benches to make a party of it

1. berry briars cover much of the course
2. such a nice and secluded course you wish it was 18 holes

It was pretty far away from any other course, but we had tons of fun here. there are many opportunities to misfire a disc off into some very thorny brush, so bring your A game... and some long pants if you don't like scrapes...