Pros:
A mostly beginner-length course with acceptable variety.
-Amenities: Mach IIIs, concrete tees, numbered tee signs (no other info). Bathrooms and other park amenities on site.
-"Friendly": The majority of the course is pretty open and easy to navigate. There are some minor navigation and brush difficulties later, but (1)-(5) and (9) are about as easy to play as they come.
-Novice Friendly: Sky Mountain Ranch is on the shorter end, with mostly holes under 250', and it's very good for newer players. I think there's a good mix of gettable holes and longer or trickier holes that will challenge someone learning the game.
-Shot Shaping/Gameplay: The first half is humdrum open holes, but the back half present a series of different challenges. The opening holes don't have more than a couple of trees to avoid, and are a gentle warmup. From there the terrain gets much more variegated. (5) and (6) require right turning shots with guarded pins, (7) throws down a huge sidehill, (8) is a woods pocket shot, and (9) is almost 400' to let you rip a drive. Considering the length of the holes, I think this terrain is used very well to promote variety and maintain fairness.
-Views: I get the idea this will be an obligatory pro for most Colorado courses I'm playing. Sky Mountain Ranch is scenic, though not overly so.
Cons:
-Openness: The first several holes aren't very interesting. The trees make it not totally dull, but there's not anything that can go wrong.
-Navigation: The (6)-(8) area has better terrain, but that also makes it harder to navigate. The main difficulty is the (5)-(6) transition, which requires a substantial uphill walk with several switchbacks.
-Signage: This courses really needs decent tee signs. At the minimum, distances are important to differentiate baskets from each other. Basic maps would also be helpful, especially on hole (8) with a blind pin. The course kiosk also showed multiple pin positions, so a system to indicate the current position would be helpful.
-Advanced Interest: Players above a rec-level will probably find Sky Mountain Ranch cute for its small size. These holes have lovely design, but they are shorter than most players will find challenging.
-Split Personality: Not a big con, but my take on the character of the course. The course is, as the title says, a bit befuddling. It's like the designers couldn't quite settle on what type of course they wanted. It starts with homogenous open holes, then becomes wooded. It starts with short holes, but then has two holes that are each 100' longer than the others. You can see the pin from each tee, but then there's one extremely blind shot. Eight of the tees are placed correctly, then the last one is 45 degrees off-angle. It's just a little bit weird.
Other Thoughts:
Sky Mountain Ranch is fun, but consistently throws you off a bit. It's a nice lower-level course with intentional variety and a followable layout. For the thrill-seeker, I wouldn't venture here, but it's a pleasant stopover if you want to play just 9.