North Mesa Disc Golf Course

North Mesa is the disc golf course for Los Alamos — nine holes on county land next to the North Mesa Picnic Grounds at 280 North Mesa Road, right on the rim of Bayo Canyon. The Los Alamos County Parks and Recreation Department put it in as the county's first permanent public course, and a ribbon cutting was held in July 2012 with Parks and Trails superintendent Jeff Humpton officiating. It's free and open year round, and if you show up without discs the Walkup Aquatic Center rents them for $5 per 24 hours.

The design leans on what's already there: trees, shrubs, canyon edges and the mesa's own elevation changes stand in for constructed obstacles. Holes generally run between 180 and 250 feet, which makes this a technical, placement-driven nine rather than a distance test — but the canyon changes the math, since a long miss on the wrong hole doesn't come back. At about 7,300 feet the air is thin and discs behave differently than they do down in the Rio Grande valley. Local play has centered here for years, from the No Quarter Doubles tournament to a Discraft Ace Race, both of which simply lapped the nine. Late spring through early fall is the practical season at this elevation; watch for uneven footing and wildlife year-round.