Bryant Lake Park fills a large, hilly piece of land in the southwestern suburbs of Minneapolis. The 18-hole disc golf course here offers some nice views of the namesake lake, plus a whole lot more.
I have to start with the infrastructure here, because it is some of the best I have ever seen in my 190ish courses played. Not only are the tee pads all large and concrete, but they are also framed in patio pavers or even entire deck platforms in many cases. Not only are there trash cans and benches at every tee, but recycling bins and bag hangers too. Not only are the paths between holes well-marked, but they are often paved. Not only are there two practice baskets and an outhouse, but also a water bottle filler. The DISCatcher baskets are color coded and in perfect shape. The kiosk and the course map on it are high-quality. There is even a great course website.
What about the actual golf? It's nice. This is a technical course with a nice range of distances, from sub-200' to about 550'. It plays in and out of the woods and moderately open hillsides, with no super tight fairways but no completely open ones either. You'll need many different throws, plus accuracy to score well here.
Many holes have noteworthy elevation changes, with a few of the changes being pretty extreme. #10 requires a left turning throw down a pretty steep hill. There's a nice net near the basket that might help stop your disc (and will protect players on #11's tee pad). Elsewhere, there are a couple of holes where ponds are in play.
This course offers up to four different layout options. The longest option (long tees to blue banded baskets) will challenge intermediate level players. The shorter options shave down the difficulty level incrementally, and the shortest option (short tees to yellow banded baskets) is appropriate for beginners.
This is where the spoilers come in.
As I experienced the last part of this course, the Jurassic World/Jurassic Park ride at the Universal Studios theme parks came to mind. I know a lot less about theme parks than I do about disc golf courses, but I know that I rode a Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios in Orlando in 2019, then a very similar Jurassic World ride at Universal Studios Hollywood this spring. How is this relevant? Like the ride, this course starts off a little bit unassuming. Once you start getting used to the immaculate course infrastructure and maintenance, #2-14 are honestly kind of just...normal. Great holes, but nothing crazy. The last 1/3 or so of the ride throws a surprise at you where T-rex breaks out of containment (or something like that) and you start getting pulled upwards. I stepped up to hole 15's tee here and got a similar vibe. This one has you throw straight up a steep hillside with a stairway cut into it. On the ride, you then get pulled through the dark at the top of the hill a little bit, unsure when T-rex is going to jump out. Hole 16 is like this. It's a short, tightly wooded hole on top of a ridge with both baskets tucked near a large rock.