Snowflower Resort
Snowflower offers
Disc Golf, Geo-caching and Paintball
By Meredith Walker

Did you ever want to try something new as a family but didn’t know what to do or how to do it?  Kids, grab your parents and let’s go to Snowflower and learn Disc Golf, Geo-caching and Paintball.

Disc or Frisbee® Golf is played much like traditional golf.  Instead of a ball and clubs, however, players use a flying disc, or Frisbee®.   A disc is thrown from a tee area to a Pole Hole® (an elevated metal basket). The object is to complete each of the nine holes in the fewest number of throws.   While you’re having fun, you’ll be getting upper and lower body conditioning and aerobic exercise.  Anyone from school age to old age can play.  A round of Disc Golf takes one to two hours.

There is no charge for playing Disc Golf at Snowflower.  The Recreation Shed has several discs of different weight and sizes available or you can bring your own.  They’ll also teach you the game.  Be sure to check the aerial photo of the preserve to see where all the Pole-Holes are located.  For more information about Disc Golf, go to www.pdga.com

Geo-Caching (pronounced cashing) is a treasure hunt using Global Positioning Satellites (GPS). (Geo refers to geography and a cache is as a secret place for hiding things). GPS users are given location coordinates to find the treasure chests which are hidden to make the game more fun and to protect them from Muggles (people who accidently find the cache and take or destroy it.)

At Snowflower, caches, filled with a logbook and trinkets, have been hidden in several places on the preserve.  In the logbook, write the date, your name and any information you want to share about the hunt. You could write about the weather, what you saw on the way to the cache, or even g-rated jokes.

You never know what Snowflower staff or other visitors to the cache may have left there for you to enjoy. Remember, if you take something, it’s only fair for you to leave something of equal or greater value in return. Do not leave food or any items that could be dangerous to the visitor.  As a bonus, the staff has also added special letters to each cache.  When you find all the caches, bring the letters to the Country Store for a prize.

The staff at Snowflower isn’t saying whether they’ll leave the caches in place or move them each year.  However, if you have already completed the beginning level, you can look forward to a new series of caches that will be more difficult to find.

You can use your own GPS or rent one from Snowflower.  They will show you how to use it.  You’ll also find geocaching activities established at Verde Valley, AZ as well.  For more information on Geo-Caching, go to www.geocaching.com.

Paintball is another game that can be enjoyed by the whole family.  You can use Snowflower’s paintball guns free of charge and pay about $2.00 for a bag of paintballs.  Kids, challenge Mom and Dad to a contest to see who can hit the different targets the most times or make the best designs on the various fabrics used for the targets.

If you say you’ve already done that and want more of a challenge, Snowflower is building a new course by placing 5 to 10 targets in the woods.  You will need to find the tee, place one foot there and attempt to hit the target without moving that foot.

All paintball activities are supervised by the recreation staff and non of the activities include firing the paintball guns at other players.  All paintballs are bio-degradable and the paint easily washes out of clothes.  For more information on paintball, go to www.paintball.com.

Snowflower activities are open from June through mid-October.  Check with the preserve for Recreation Office hours.

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