Nice scenery, some interesting wooded holes and a really cool couple holes in a HUGE open field. For BOMB shots

Ive played several wooded and tight courses, but this one takes the cake. I was there in June which meant overgrowth was enormous. Fairways of maybe 6-7 ft with HEAVY growth on both sides. No room for error on those shots or you will be shooting out of 7-10 ft tall plants.

If in the area, its worth the stop but i really would not go out of my way and make a trip to play the course.

The course is located in a nice park and every hole has a concrete teepad. On nice days and when it is well maintained, the course can be fun to walk through. The last downhill hole it a fun one to bomb

Poor signage and often the sign posts are at the very back of the teebox. Bugs and poison ivy can often be bad. There is a pretty long walk from the basket on 3 to the teebox on 4 with poor directions on getting there (usually helps if you already know where you are going). The course isn't always well maintained, but when it is it can be nice. Be ready to look for any discs that strays from the fairway for some time (can get very annoying).

There are sparingly few courses located in central Pennsylvania so it's nice to have at least something. If your disc goes off the fairway be prepared to search and be throwing from some thick brush. Some of the holes can be challenging, but most intermediate to advanced players would find the course boring after one round.

Canoe Creek State Park is nearby and is much more fun course to play with a much/well maintained fairways.

The first three holes are relatively easy and easily birdie material. The first hole is a tight downhill fairway shot between many pines. Few major hazards litter these first three holes and provide a chance to warm up for the next several ones. The next three holes (as well as #8) are very wooded and require precision; otherwise, bogies/double bogies are imminent. Holes 7 and 9 go uphill and downhill, respectively and require very powerful drives. Bring some overstable distance drivers for the last hole, which is a great chance to see how far you can rip your discs into some headwinds.

Another pro is the concrete tees and quality DISCatchers on every hole.

- Because Altoona lacks a decent parks and recreation network, this place can get very crowded at times. Try to avoid going on Sundays in the summer, as several bands hold concerts for the elderly people nearby. As a result, the entire park gets packed with septuagenarians and octogenarians.

- The bathrooms are locked sometimes

- The course can be hard to navigate from hole to hole. This is especially true from hole 3 to 4 and from hole 4 to five. After you play hole 4, backtrack and get out where the dogleg makes a 90 degree angle. Walk through the slightly overgrown path at this point and you should see the 5th tee.

- The signs are often pulled out of the ground and left sometimes hundreds of feet away from the tee. It seems like there's a perpetual tug-of-war between disc golfers and vandals with the placement of the signs. This makes navigating the course even more difficult.

- The trail can be very muddy in parts -- even during extended periods of time without rain! Watch your step going up/down hills, or it could turn out being a natural slip and slide.

In addition to being only a mile from my house, this was my first ever disc golfing experience. It's a nice short retreat for disc golfers in Central PA and the variety of open and wooded holes is a plus and a great way to develop skills.

Having been to many other courses around the state, however, I can say with conviction that there are plenty of better courses around. I would recommend Prince Gallitzin and IUP College Lodge as places to try in the area, but give this one a chance too. Despite a somewhat scathing review, this park is definitely challenging enough to satisfy even a very experienced disc golfer.

I do wish people would maintain this course a little better. I try my best to do so, but a coalition of disc golfers is needed to keep the signs in place and trash off the course.

**UPDATE**

Thanks to the efforts Blair County and the BBC Disc Golf Organization, some improvements have been made to the course:

1.) "Next tee" signs on each hole
2.) Fairways have been trimmed to navigate and hold lines better.

We're looking to improve signage and hopefully get another 9 holes in the future.

Just a note about hole #9: the basket was stolen last year, so they replaced the basket with a new DISCatcher that has a #1 on it. If you're playing for the first time and see a #1 basket by a giant sledding hill, backtrack to the parking lot and you'll find hole #1.

I agree with most of what the previous review had to say. There are nice signs and concrete tees. The holes have a nice mix of open and "in the woods"
throws. There are both severe uphill and downhill shots. There's the need for hyzers and anhyzers. There's the need for finesse and the need for power. The facilities are well kept, including bathrooms, playground and picnic areas.

Unfortunately, the pins are pulled from sometime in November until Spring. This cuts down on the playing time available for the course. Call the local parks and recreation dept. before planning a trip there if you're from out of town. And there are only single tees and pins.

Where I disagree with the previous review would be in regards to holes #4 & #5. Once you find your way to #4 (around the road, past the nursing home, over the bridge, to grandmother's house), I really like the hole. You can't reasonably expect to birdie the hole (often if ever), but you should be able to par it most of the time. The landing area for your tee shot is small and requires good control. Otherwise, you're deep in the woods and looking at bogie/double bogie territory. From there, it's a relatively short approach to the pin.

And to me #5 also just requires an accurate, controlled tee shot as the hole is only 200' long. It's narrow and sloping all of the way, but not unplayable. And even if you end up in the woods, as I frequently do, the up-shots aren't too bad.

On #6, though, I totally agree with the previous assessment. (And #8 is similar, but to a lesser degree because it's shorter.) The #6 tee shot is essentially a crapshoot. Just whip it into the woods about 150' to the nearly 90 degree dog leg and hope that the tree... that you will hit... bounces you in a good direction. If not, you're in deep doo doo again. I'm all about leaving as many tress standing as possible and not clear cutting the land. But this hole really is one of my least favorite holes on any course that I've played (and not just because I score poorly on it all of the time, but because it's too much about luck and not enough about skill).

In any case, I really enjoy this little course for what it is. 8 out of 9 enjoyable holes and a good cardio workout climbing the mountain a couple of times.

*Note: This is the first course I played on when I started playing the official game of disc golf in the spring of 2007. So it has a special place in my heart as I've just come to love the game all over again. I played target disc golf in the early 80's with my best friend and we didn't even know that there was an official game out there at the time. Thanks for indulging my memory lane trip here.

Plus Chili's is right up the road! ;-)