A prominent amenity this park offers is the 9 hole disc golf course. And on the day of my last…read morevisit, there were several groups of people participating. There is a pavilion good for group picnic and organized activity. And a rather small 2-slide playground for kids. It's along side the Conodoguinet Creek and so fishing would be another possible activity. In fact, this was the place where I first tried fishing when I moved to PA. There is nice boat launch ramp but an overkill nevertheless because the creek being only 1-2 feet deep, only kayaks, canoes, and floats would be usable. Ambiance-wise, this park feels rather dumpy and disorganized -- maybe partly due to the landscape design. The road is also in desperate need for maintenance. Absolutely not a good place for hiking or even a short walk.

I came here back in July with my father and brother for a round of disc golf. In my opinion, this…read moreis a challenging course; but I have only been disc golfing for one year now. Course Layout: The course is situated inside of a pretty heavily wooded area and features a wide variety of challenging shots from vast changes in elevation, to blind shots, to hard dog legs, to a combination of all of the above. Add to that some water hazards, some dense vegetation, and some challenging pin positions and you have a heck of a course. That said, I played extremely well on this course for hittin' it up for the first time. It tested all of my skills, and also challenged me intellectually as well. For me, I seriously had to consider all of my shot options before venturing forth. Just because a particular shot looked easy, didn't mean that it was. With some holes having a water hazard as a back drop, some with massive elevation changes, and some with sloped hills where the baskets were -- nothing was ever as simple as just walking up and throwing your disc. This is a well crafted course Course Layout: 5 / 5 Venue: This course is situated within the Middlesex Township Park in Carlisle. It was hard to find for us the first time because it was our first time in the area, but you want to turn into your first turn, if your coming from the direction where the park is on your left. For us, the venue was very peaceful, and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. There was nobody else on the course, and it was pretty well marked. Each tee box had a pretty detailed sign and each basket had an arrow or some indicator to guide you to the next hole. Be wary though, the bugs here are ANNOYING and brutal in the summer. They will fly in your eyes, your hair, your mouth, your nose, your ear, and any other exposed orifice that they can find. They are the small little eff'ers too, that swarm your face every chance they get. Sun glasses are a must here, even on overcast days. Venue: 4 / 5 Tee Pads / Baskets: These are a big pro of the course. The tee boxes / pads are perfect. Very well laid, long enough for someone with several steps in their mechanics, and they are slightly grooved so you don't have to worry about falling on your butt, even in wet conditions. The baskets are equally as perfect. They are in excellent condition and are the standard for disc golf catchers in the disc golf world. Tee Pads & Baskets: 5 / 5 Signature Holes, etc: This course has a lot of brutally awesome holes. I think it was hole four-ish that featured a hard dog leg left at the bottom of a steep decline, then the tee basket was across a small bridge. Throw your drive too far ( like me), end up down in a giant ditch / creek. There are several other holes on this course that are definitively unique as well. There is a hole with a unique pie wedge-shaped tee pad that gives you the distinct option to play the hole to the right or the left. I played it to the left, and highly recommend that as your course of action -- even if you don't have a 'flick'. Then there is hole 16 or 17. It is a beautiful and scenic shot that has you firing a drive through a picturesque fairway, then crossing a ditch/creek, to then go up a sharp elevation change. Signature Holes, etc.: 5 / 5 Final Thoughts: This may be my favorite local course as it presents such a wide variety of different shots and situations. You will come away from playing here feeling exhausted, both mentally and physically because this course challenges you. Also, it is quite a hike inside these woods. With all the changes in elevation and all of the rough terrain, you will most definitely be getting a work-out. This course is almost perfect, it just suffers from what some other courses suffer from -- angry, little bugs that like to fly in your face...constantly. Despite that, I highly recommend this course.

If you're looking for a beautiful, challenging disc golf course, then I highly recommend Coyote…read moreHills. It's a full 18 hole course, with several long tee boxes for an additional challenge! Local volunteers keep the course well maintained and I've never had a bad experience here (except the occasional lost disc!) Coyote Hills hosts several major disc golf events each year, including an ice bowl in the winter, a tag league from spring through the fall, an ace race in the fall, as well as local and state championship competitions. Players of all ages and skill levels come and enjoy a great time of fellowship together and I've always felt welcome, no matter who's playing. As a park, it's a beautiful hike through the woods too! They also have basketball courts, a splash pad, and equipment for the kids. There's also a nice pavilion and township building that can be rented for events!

I have been to Boulder Woods Disc Golf Course at Pinchot-Gifford State Park more times than any…read moreother course in the Harrisburg region. I am very fond of this course, and it easily ranks up with Coyote Hills as my favorite. In actuality, there are two 18 hole course at Gifford-Pinchot. The other one, Quaker Challenge, I have not had the real pleasure of playing yet because the two times I tried to go, the other person I was with wimped-out. FYI: The Quaker course is the harder of the two. Course Layout: Despite Quaker being the more difficult course, Boulder Woods is not a walk-in-the-park. No pun intended! It is laid-out in a pretty dense forest with plenty of obstacles obscuring the vast majority of the holes. Hole 1 and 18 may be the best shot that you have at an Ace. Well, 7 is a possibility too on a perfect ... precision shot. Overall though, the course is very easy to follow, and despite the dense vegetation it is safe-vegetation. Not a lot of thorns or areas where there is dangerous vegetation (poison ivy, etc). There is also not a lot of elevation changes as well. The whole course is pretty flat, and the tee baskets are also typically on level surfaces. So although you typically have to deal with trees who angrily slap your disc out of the sky, there isn't too much up-and-down hills, nor blind shots to deal with. Course Layout: 4 / 5 Venue: This course is situated within the Gifford Pinchot State Park. One of the big advantages I have found about this course over all of the others I have been to is the lack of bugs. At other course, the bugs can be overwhelmingly bad. Here, I have had no issues. Plus, the whole course is situated in the woods, so getting sun burnt, wind, and other elements are not usually a major factor. The only time that the elements are really a factor is in the late fall and early spring when there aren't as many leaves to shield you. Getting to the park was definitely a challenge the first time. This course is the one off-of Alpine road. We ended-up at Quaker the first time we came, and my dad who is getting older looked up the first giant hill at hole 1 and was like, 'Nope!'. So we drove around until we found it. Venue: 4 / 5 Tee Pads / Baskets: These are a big pro of the course. The tee boxes / pads are perfect. Very well laid, long enough for someone with several steps in their mechanics, and they are slightly grooved so you don't have to worry about falling on your butt, even in wet conditions. The baskets are equally as perfect. They are in excellent condition and are the standard for disc golf catchers in the disc golf world. Tee Pads & Baskets: 5 / 5 Signature Holes, etc: This course lacks a definitive signature hole. It does have a lot of challenging holes that require a great tee shot; but if you are good off-the-tee like I am in terms of precision) you will score really well on this course, pretty regularly. Signature Holes, etc.: 2 / 5 Final Thoughts: Even though this is not my favorite local course, I end up here more often than not because of its relative proximity to my home, and the friendly environment. Plus, it is just a really nice park to throw discs around in. You will come away from playing here feeling used and abused by the trees and there voluptuous leaves in the late spring through early fall. In the fall through the early spring you will still get unnecessarily brutalized by the trees and their branches because I am pretty sure each tree has its own gravitational pull. If you want to seriously evaluate your game, this is a good course to do so at.

Ohhhh, Red Land High School .... I loathe your disc golf course. I loathe it for one reason, and…read moreone reason alone: I always lose a friggin' disc at this course. 'How', you may ask? 'How can you possibly lose a disc on such a wide-open course ... let alone two discs or three?" Let me tell you. Because there is an evil leprechaun or troll that grabs discs and runs away with them. Friggin' ridiculous. I have lost my top approach disc, my top putter, and my top putter after replacing my last top putter. Whhhhy!!!? Course Layout: This course is a grip-it-and-rip it course like none-other. There are some VERY long holes on this course (600 ft +) that have very few obstructions in the fairway. The holes are all pretty straight-forward, and you don't have too much elevation to worry about. There are very few dog-legs as well. Most of the time, you can see the pin from the box, and it is straight ahead. The exception to this is hole 3 (sort of...it is straight-ahead but behind a small grove of trees), hole 4 for sure, and hole 9 (back in the woods). Other than that -- that is about it. There is no water on the course, but the course can get soggy after some rain. Also, despite there not really being any obstacles in the fairway, there tends to be some dense vegetation to either side of you. So, if you yank it on some holes, you will likely never find your disc. Also, going after your disc is perilous...which brings me to my next category... Course Layout: 3 / 5 Venue: The actual venue itself is never busy .. at least, not when I have been there. This makes looking for an errant throw a little easier, and you can definitely play a much more mellow round without anyone on your heels. Speaking of errant throws, if you do have one ... good luck finding your disc. Not only is the vegetation dense along most holes, but it is dangerous. I have gotten poison ivy from the woods and I have gotten scraped-up pretty badly by the gratuitous number of thorny bushes ... everywhere. Venue: 2 / 5 Tee Pads and Baskets: The baskets are great. The Tee Pads? Not so much. They are way to small, and they are bordered by wood frames which are not all flush with the tee pad. It is very, very difficult to throw drives off of these tee pads safely. I have nearly rolled ankles on multiple occasions. The biggest problem with the pads stems from the fact that some of these holes are monster-holes. As previously mentioned -- 600 + feet long, so you want to put a little extra behind every tee shot. That is very difficult to do without risking injury. I don't feel safe on these pads, and so I typically tone it down a bit, or try and overcompensate with a little more arm. Ultimately, this isn't helping my game and is likely doing more harm to my mechanics than good. Tee Pads & Baskets: 2/5 (5/5 for baskets -1/5 Tee Pads) Final Thoughts: Red Land is a fun course to come out and try working on your short game and your putting. In terms of your long game, given the extreme distances on some of the holes, you can work on that too, but I recommend coming on a dry day and throwing from the grass. The tee pads are just too difficult to manage, and some of them are backed-up to a barn or other structure so that it is impossible to walk-up to them. Overall though, if you are looking for a backwoods-style, easy-going course with little traffic and some real bombs for drives, this is something to check out. If you are looking for a quality, tournament-level course ... this is sooooo far from it, it is hysterical.

Im giving it this review just because the school that owns this course is bad like this school not…read morevery good now im just going to say a bunch of words till a get to a good length hi hikfjdhdjfjfjdkcjfkskxhcndnskducjfnekdkdnfnfnfnfnfnfnfjcnnfnfnfnfnfnfnfnndnfnfnnjjjjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjeejejdhdjsjdjejdjdjfjdj

Great park! Very clean and well maintained. The farm side of the park (off Circleville) is used…read moreheavily for youth soccer and picnics. My kids loved the playgrounds when they were younger

Simple large open space, well groomed, larger playground, baseball, tennis, frisbee golf, longer…read morewalking path.

Just beautiful love it This park is huge and people can do…read moremany outdoor activities such as camping, swimming, barbecuing, fishing, kayaking, and more Also, you can celebrate any kind of events such weddings

Let me tell you something. During this time of Covidiousness, we've certainly done our fair share…read moreof outdoorsy types of things. While coming to a state park like this in York County may not seem like an obvious choice, it's actually been the perfect place. I'm not going to go in to any history or backstory (I covered that in my initial musings several years ago) but what sets this park apart from most PA state parks is its size. While the park is only 85 acres (PA has 121 state parks and some of them clock in at north of 15K acres just for a sense of scope) it's layout allows for things to feel more spread out than you would assume. The main road that wraps around the park is great for walking but there are also two miles of trails which if done in a clockwise direction are actually somewhat challenging with how it'll be mostly uphill. There is also a disc gold course, a rock formation that kids will love to climb on, a few small swing sets placed at different spots and a large open field at the top of hill with one hell of a view towards the Susquehanna River, Wrightsville and Columbia. The best part about this place is that it's rural enough so that it's never too busy. We've made trips to some state parks closer to us (Jacobsburg-Nockamixon-Lehigh Gorge) recently and they have been consistently packed. Here, not so much. The drive here is easy. There is an amazing view. There is usually more than enough space for everyone to spread out and do whatever they want. Sounds perfect to me and we'll be back this weekend.

Samuel S. Lewis State Park does not offer you a bunch of amenities. There's no amazing new…read moreplayground for the kiddies (although there are some swings and such throughout). There's very few short trails around the park (but enough to satisfy my dogs and if you go the "right" way, you get quite a workout hiking uphill). However, what you DO get is gorgeous views of the river and landscape from atop Mt. Pisgah. You also get open space to roam and run around. And my son's favorite part are the rocks! He loves to climb and explore. It's almost possible for me to give any park less than five stars--especially one with such a beautiful view. You won't regret the trip to visit this park. I'm just lucky that it's only 15 minutes from home. P.S. Go read Christopher C.'s review--it's very thorough and well-written.

Wonderful large free outdoor space Soccer fields baseball diamond disc golf nature trail benches…read moregrass trees water wild life and pavilions love it.

Love it! Beautiful park with nature trails / paved walking trails, athletics complex & playgrounds…read more Volleyball Court, tennis court, ample parking. Great time for anyone with a family. There's a wall for soccer / lacrosse practice.

I love this park! Love the trails, the lake, the picnic areas, and boat rentals…read more Wish the park would keep the beach swimming area clean. There's always loads of geese/dog poop. The sand should be combed daily no matter if it's closed. Twice I've gone there and swimming is closed due to contamination or algae.

Lovely park! I've mostly done hiking there which has always been great. It's beautiful and there's…read morelots of space.