Altoona, PA

Valley View Park

2.675(based on 12 reviews)
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0 1
paddyB
Experience: 8.6 years 7 played 2 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Fun Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 23, 2015 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Good mix of open shots and tight wooded shots. I'm a newbie so it is forgiving on # 1 to #3 and #7 and #9. It's close to decent restaurants and bars.

Cons:

Long walk between #3 and #4. The park is busy in the summer which makes it difficult. One of the times I played, there were 20 some pre-teens running around hole #1 and #2.

Other Thoughts:

This course requires some skilled shots from the tee to make par, especially the wooded areas. As some of the previous reviews state, #6 is a matter of pure luck. There is no real distinct line to the pin, and is more a matter of luck than a well executed shot.
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1 1
ThumbMan12
Experience: 3 played 3 reviews
2.50 star(s)

so-so 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 10, 2012 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

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

Cons:

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.

Other Thoughts:

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.
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1 1
obi1keno
Experience: 11.6 years 12 played 11 reviews
3.00 star(s)

It's a course thru the woods 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Sep 22, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

The holes are very scenic and well maintained. There is a baseball field right next to the first tee, so if you need to test out some disc flights before you start, you can easily do it (provided there is no one playing ball of course).

Cons:

For a new player, the fairways are quite narrow and if you get a lot of loft and turn on your throw, you could end up spending a descent amount of time tracking your disc down. Keep your throws low and you won't have this problem.

Other Thoughts:

For my first time every playing disc golf, this course was a little sticky, but it forced me to buckle down and think about the shots I was taking. Being in in the woods kept me from going out and just launching every shot. If you do that and don't have control you're going to be looking for a lot of discs. The good news is that when I was looking for discs in the thicket, I encountered no poison ivy and very few thorns.
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1 1
timbur3
Experience: 16.8 years 101 played 50 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Nice Park Nice Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 14, 2012 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

The course had cement tee pads and some pretty good baskets. Every hole had signs to point you to the next tee pad so it was pretty easy to navigate.

Cons:

Some of the tee signs were missing(#1, #8). I got stung by a bee on #4 which was a downer. I feel like some trees could be cleared on some of the holes so there was actually a lane instead of depending on pure luck to get through.

Other Thoughts:

The course had some nice open holes and some holes in the woods. #9 was a fun hole that you throw down a huge hill. Overall a nice 9 hole course if you live in the Altoona area.
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2 1
dm734593
Experience: 12.9 years 9 played 6 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Great course for Central PA disc golfers 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jul 5, 2012 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Wide concrete tees, 3 easy holes to get start the round combined with tricky wooded holes, course covers a lot of distance for good exercise.

Cons:

Markings on course for next tee are not easy to read unless you've already played the course, long walk without between holes 3 and 4, if thrown off the paths tough to find discs.

Other Thoughts:

I play this course a lot and it is a great course to hone your skills. I'm an average disc golfer and my best round so far is -2 (25) getting some very favorable bounces. For more experienced players, this course still has a few holes that can still challenge you, including a dogleg right on hole 4 and heavily wooded areas making it hard to hit fairways.
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3 0
sloppyeric
Experience: 13 years 12 played 3 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Decent 9 Holer 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 3, 2011 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

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

Cons:

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).

Other Thoughts:

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.
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2 4
jsnyder11
Experience: 19.8 years 4 played 1 reviews
4.00 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 18, 2011 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

nice teas,clean, a challenge but not too hard. easy to find the holes but after 3 take the road till you see a bridge and cross it then go left to get to #4.

Other Thoughts:

one of the best i have played. I play here almost everyday in the summer bets score 27 even par
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3 0
swatso
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 15.7 years 755 played 414 reviews
1.50 star(s)

Acordian 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 5, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

Long-n-wide concrete teepads. Some elevation change most holes. Not far from petrol/food options - Granny's, a few blocks earlier on Valley View, was quite good.

Cons:

Single tee/basket Signs missing on 1,8,9. The signs that were there directly abutted the back of the tee!

Other Thoughts:

Course plays on the open/sparsely-/densely-wooded slopes of a small public park. The first three holes have very fair throwing lanes with some large hardwoods to avoid. Holes 4 & 6 are very sharp-turning (right=4, left-6), with tons of thick brush on both sides - hopefully you'll have a spotter. 5 and 8 are similar - somewhat uphill, short, thickly-wooded the entire way, difficult (5) impossible (8) throwing paths. #7 is long and uphill, woods on right but open on left, while the finale brings you back down the hill, again keeping the woods on the right.

Navigation hints: Tee-1 to right of bathroom. Tee -2 slight right from basket-1. Tee-3 hard right from basket-2. To find tee-4 walk past basket-3 towards play area, follow paved path to the right. After it bends left and ends, there is a line of trees in front of you, and a small bridge - cross it, turn left, find tee-4 to right. Find a small path to the left of basket-4, then make a very hard left to find tee-5. Go left from basket-5 and downhill to find tee-6. Follow obvious path from basket-6, turn right at T-junction, find tee-7. Obvious path from basket-7 to tee-8, exit basket-8 to left and find tee-9. Cross bridge, a few steps left, then up small path through trees/brush to find back of parking lot.
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5 0
jblough
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 14.9 years 85 played 82 reviews
2.50 star(s)

A decent 9-hole course that could use some TLC 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jun 27, 2009 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

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.

Cons:

- 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.

Other Thoughts:

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.
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5 2
Brida
Experience: 15.7 years 10 played 9 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Luck or Skill? 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 12, 2008 Played the course:once

Pros:

Mixes of straight shots and heavily wooded areas. A challenging course for even a very good player. The shot for 9 is worth the rest of the course.

Cons:

Too wooded on some holes. Finding 4 is a bit tricky. The land in between the tee and the hole on five is so slanted that even a lay-up will slide down the hill and turn a par into a bogey or double bogey.

Other Thoughts:

Overall the course was fun but on some holes it felt like you needed some luck to do well even if your shot was perfect. You need some patience or this course can get you really heated.
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8 0
Jimb
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 17.1 years 126 played 54 reviews
2.50 star(s)

I like it. 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Oct 3, 2008 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Other Thoughts:

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! ;-)
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10 0
MattK
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 17.8 years 81 played 40 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Woods & Slopes 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 16, 2007 Played the course:never

Pros:

The course is easy to get to from the highway. Has concrete tees and signs for every hole. Great use of the changes in elevation, as well as the foliage outside of the woods. The big downhill 9th is one of those "throw everything you've got" holes - a fun one to finish on.

Cons:

A long walk from the 3rd to the 4th where the course enters the woods - easy to get lost if you don't know where you're going. The wooded holes progress from irritating to worse - the concept of throwing lanes and landing zones gets progressively more lost from 4 to 5 to 6.

Other Thoughts:

I'd call this one a woods course because even though most of the holes aren't technically in the woods most of the strokes taken will be. It was worth the trip from State College for a little variety, but likely not worth it from Pittsburgh since there are so many better courses there.
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