I had pretty guarded expectations about a wooded course in a small town, but this is actually a really good course, very much worth a detour if you find yourself going through Crowsnest Pass on a trip.

The course has brand new baskets and signs at every tee. You'll just need to arrive with a map not only to get from a basket to the next tee, but also you need to have a pretty good idea where the first tee is before you arrive as the whole course is somewhat hidden from view from the road. The signs are quite good at making it clear what you're shooting even on blind holes.

I was really leery of having to spend a lot of time looking for discs before I came, given it's playing through a forest all 18 holes, but there's surprising sparse ground cover through most of the course. Most of the time you just walk right up to your disc without issue. There's a lot of fallen trees which actually make good reference points in spotting a drive. There are at least 2 holes I cal recall with blind tee shots that will require a spotter, though, or you're going to be in tough if you're by yourself.

There are only a couple holes with tee pads, but the tee pads are very nice and level, and if that's a work in progress that will see tee pads for all 18 holes, I can't wait to see that. There are a lot of shrubs and things that could make life difficult, but not much that's in play, you'd have to go off course to lose a disc it seems.

Course design is pretty good. There's two halves to this course; the "upper" section (relative to the slope of the mountain) where you start and finish, and the "lower" section that makes up the middle part of the game. What differentiates these two areas is the density of the trees, the upper section being a lot more dense, and I enjoyed the lower section tremendously as it was in my mind a perfect landscape for disc golf (save maybe for the extra ground cover). Lots of trees still, but lots of space between the trees.

In the upper section, you're throwing a lot of very tight shots with fairly small gaps to hit, lots of "hyzer flips to tunnel shot", but not so many that it's too much. You'll hit a few trees, but there's also some memorable holes here where you can get some distance, and a nice big par 4 that arcs up a curving gully and might have you throwing under a fallen tree. Some steep ups and downs on some holes.

In the lower section, the trees thin out and most of the shots have a clear and distinct fairway but that's not to say you have a straight line to the basket. There's still enough of them that you'll have to shape your shot and come at the basket from the right angle. The course design here is good, many of the holes allow some risk/reward decision making.

Tee pads are the primary issue if you're going to nit pick, because where there are natural tee pads and some long throws to make, it can be very hard to take even a 2 step run up before your throw. On most 'forest' courses like this with rough natural tee pads, a standing throw will suffice on most holes because they're usually under 300 ft. Strangely, the first couple tee pads deployed here aren't on the longest holes, so hopefully they can continue to add.

Personally I am not a fan of what I call "plinko" holes, where you have absolutely no choice but to throw into a cluster of trees and hope you make it through without a bad deflection, or try to hit windows from >150ft that are only a couple feet wide. There's a tiny bit of that here on a couple holes, but generally on a densely wooded hole there's at least a tunnel to hit, even if it's tight.

There's camping in the town of Elkford if you want to stay here on your way through, and hopefully, the fun focused tournament during Elkford's "Wildcat Days" becomes an annual event.

To be honest, I was expecting a bad time because I hate searching for my discs in overgrown ground cover... but I really had no issues. It was great! One guy in our group lost a disc, but he badly shanked a throw and it went where we couldn't see it land. With spotters on the blind throws, you won't have any stress and it's a great and challenging course.

Great piece of land for a DG course, with decent elevation and plenty of trees to work through.

Good variety of hole lengths, varying from 203' to 484'. All holes are wooded, with many requiring left or right-fading finishes and a few needing dead-straight drives. With the added challenge of uphill or downhill drives to the pin there is a good bit of variety.

Brand spanking new Innova baskets, which show up very well in the woods. New tee signs have good diagrams of the hole, distance, par and "nest tee" arrow. Very nicely done.

A few of the tees have new rubber pads. They are large and flat. I imagine that the rest of the holes will get these eventually.

Goof parking area with a nice course sign at the start.

Some of the existing teepads are small and rough. In a couple of cases you just pick a place along the trail near the tee sign. With a few new pads in place I imagine that these will eventually be upgraded.

There is just a huge amount of fallen timber on this course. Some of it looks like it has been down for a while, and other looks fresh. There is also a good bit of low-growing brush and small trees. This all makes it a little tricky to find discs and also to set up for approach shots. It looks like some clearing and burning has been done, so this too may be taken care of in the future.

I enjoyed this course, and can see that it is a work in progress. The basic layout is sound and the new baskets and signs look great. What is left is installing the remaining teepads and some general cleaning up and trail improvements.

The transition from Basket 6 to Tee 7 is a little tricky. You cross Alpine Drive and there is a obvious path down the hill on the other side. That isn't the way!! Instead, walk along the road a couple of hundred feet until you see flagging tape marking a small dirt path.

Great Baskets, signs. Parking/access. Fun technical course. Risk/reward! Elevation is used well, good mix of hole lengths.

Lots of log debris, but considering this course is not a year old it will get better overtime. Where sturdy shoes.

You WILL hit a tree!