Springvale Park Disc Golf Course: Denver, CO
When my wife and I made the decision that we were going to drive out to Colorado to watch our niece play softball, one of the first things I said to her was "if we have room, I am bringing my discs". After not playing much for a while, the past couple of years I have really started put in some more time on the local disc golf courses.
It helps that I am now on a small league that my friend and his son started. I basically have to play the same course at least ten times this summer. I think I still have three more to go to get all my scores in.
Anyway, I figured there were probably some pretty cool disc golf courses out west, so I thought it might be cool to play one or two of them.
That led us to Springvale Park Disc Golf Course it was a relatively short drive from our rental house in the Denver suburb of Thornton. It got pretty decent reviews on the UDisc app and it didn't look like it would be too difficult for @mrsbozz.
When we showed up, it was pretty clear that the sprinklers had just been run because the ground was soaking wet and the grass was quite long.
We simply resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to let our shoes dry out after the round and we started to play. As you can see from the photos, the course is very wide open. This is a stark difference to the many wooded holes that I am used to playing here in Michigan.
The course was also very "short" with all holes being par 3's and many of them not being much more than 200 feet long. In many cases I was able to get within putting distance of the baskets with my first throw. Actually, that's not entirely true. I had read before traveling out to Colorado that the higher altitude can effect the flight of your discs.
Certain discs that you are used to doing one thing in the air, might do something totally different at a mile high. That seemed to be the case here. I was struggling to lock in my drive and that left me needing multiple throws to get in the basket. I ended up paring most of the holes where birdies should have been easily attainable for me.
Another thing I failed to realize was the fact that the front nine holes of the course was separated from the back nine by an almost mile walk from one part of the course to the other. With nine holes behind us, the temperature starting to rise, the higher altitude impacting us a little, and soggy feet, we followed the path under the main road over to the other part of the course.
As much as I complain, and while not entirely practical, it was pretty cool the way they had the park set up. Each smaller park sits within walking distance to a subdivision. People who live in the subdivision can easily access the park via concrete walking paths.
Those parks are then connected to other parks in other subdivisions by more concrete paths. You can easily hop from one park or subdivision to another without ever getting on the road. It's pretty cool.
The path also follows a long a pretty long reservoir that sits between the neighborhoods. Looking at Google Maps, there are at least six parks that are all connected between subdivisions if not more. Like I said, it's pretty cool.
As we got to the back (or south) nine of the course, we noticed that the city of Thornton workers were there doing lawn care on the course. We had to wait for the lawn mower to get out of the way on some of the holes. I wasn't in the mood to have any of my discs run over and destroyed!
The back nine was actually a bit longer than the front nine, but the holes were still pretty wide open. This was actually some of the most green we saw when we were out in Colorado. Everything else was kind of this weird shade of brown. I don't know if that is the norm out there or if they were in a bit of a drought.
Eventually the course took us into some of that brown scrub brush that we got so used to seeing out west. It just seemed so dry and unwelcoming, but despite that fact, it was still teaming with life.
I'll be the first to admit that I struggled a bit on the back nine of the course. These last couple of holes really got to me and I ended up getting five bogies on the back nine. I did get a couple birdies in the greener part of the back nine, but by the end we were both getting hot and tired and we knew we still had to walk all the way back to where we had parked the car.
Around hole 16 or 17 a group of two people behind us had finally caught up with us. I had to run back and grab my sunglasses that had fallen out of my bag and they had picked up. That made me feel rushed and my game kind of fell apart. I'm not making excuses, but there were a lot of factors at play.
I ended up finishing the course with a score of four over par which isn't too bad for my first round on a new course. I'm not going to disclose @mrsbozz score as she is still learning the game. By the time we got back to the parking lot, the lawn crew had finished mowing over there as you can see in the opening photo. We might have had much drier feet if they had started over there.
If I remember correctly, @mrsbozz said we clocked something like six miles during that round of disc golf. We were both drenched with sweat and I hit a local gas station so we could grab a couple of Gatorades to rehydrate and get some electrolytes back in our bodies.
It was shaping up to be a toasty Monday in Denver and we still had the whole day ahead of us! Check back tomorrow to find out what we did next!
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Too funny, I had no idea about disc golf until fairly recently. I'm definitely enjoying it and it's good that you do as well! I think the course you were at looks like a lot of fun, wide open spaces. The ones we've been to are beautiful for sure.. but they are not really novice courses as there's a fuck ton of trees lol my son gets frustrated but he's still an adolescent.. so it's to be expected.
I know that we are for sure going to be bringing our discs wherever we travel now! Gotta find local courses!
I have played more than one of those courses that are full of trees. They can be a bit of a pain, but it allows you to work on your short game versus just seeing how far you can throw the disc. I think my wife and I might try to hit a new course this weekend while we are camping. If you haven't downloaded it, you should check out the UDisc app. It shows you all the courses near wherever you are and gives you ratings and maps for them. The pay version gives you a bit more options, but if you are just starting out the free version is fine.
That’s awesome thanks for the tip!
Yeah the trees are a challenge for sure lol if you check out the post I did last night you can see there’s quite a bit of short term strategies to try.
I think my son would like to just throw it as far as he can lol so I’ll try and find a clear one nearby
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Wet grass and rising heat when you played the back 9 aside, it looks like a beautiful course! I'd love to just go walking around that area.
I'd like to have another shot at it quite honestly. Maybe on a cooler day. The other course we played was much better, but came with its own hazards.
Looks like a nice course. The locals must be used to the altitude, but I'm not sure if I've been that high up apart from on skiing holidays. One of these days I'll have find a course over here, but it seemed to be a bit of a drive to the nearest one.
It wasn't on this course, but the highest we went in our trip was close to 13,000 to 14,000 feet which is about as high as some of the highest peaks in the Swiss Alps I think. The altitude is no joke, it makes even normal things deceptively difficult. As I said on the Red Rocks post, my sister in law runs marathons and even she was struggling that first full day. I hope you find one eventually.
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That looks like a lot of fun, I have never played disc golf but maybe I should.
It's one of my favorite hobbies. It's a great way to get out in nature and get some exercise while having some fun too.
What a workout! 6 miles? I would have croaked.
I wouldn't mind getting into disc golf for a little exercise, but we only have one course locally and it is always packed. Unless I want to go into or closer to Louisville, which I don't.
Hope you didn't get into those ants. Those things are unforgiving.
No, besides the photos, I gave the ants a wide berth. I am just glad that my disc didn't land on the hole or anything like that! Yeah, southern Indiana is a bit sparse it looks like. There is a course in Marysville and one in Palmyra, then a smaller one in scottsburg and crothersville according to my app.
Thanks.
That was some serious exercise! Looks like a nice place though, did the tunnel run under a busy road?
Those red ants are nasty little critters with a nasty bite. You want to steer clear of them! I had almost forgotten that Denver is a bit of a desert once out of the mountains. That was a pretty thistle you found! Glad you got in a good workout and not a horrible score!
Yes, the tunnel went under the busy road. I think that's one of the things that was most disappointing about Denver. All the brown I mean.
I haven't played disc golf in years! I used to play a lot in Texas before I was married, and I still have all my discs, at least 40 in total. Granted, the course I played often had a big, pretty dirty pond where people would lose discs. My friends and I would often walk around in it and pull out any discs we found. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the safest thing to do, considering how dirty the water was and the fact that we often saw snakes there.
I kind of like the layout of those parks. They look enjoyable to run on, and it's easy to access a bunch of smaller parks.
Yeah, if you were to look at the Google maps of the area, I think you would be impressed. We have a course with a pond around the corner from my house. I play there quite frequently and I have lost a disc or two. 40 discs is no joke, you should bust them out. Some of the old Innovas are collectors pieces and fetch a pretty penny these days. I'd be interested to see what you have.
That is not lot ants :)) .... I hope they all did not hunt you there when you was try get some good photos :))
I'm just glad my disc didn't land on them!
AH :)) ... it have maid them very mad yes :))) be happy that there weren't those fire ants that are in the Amazon... if you see them, then run fast :)))
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