Here you can learn all about Milo McIver Disc Golf Course in Estacada, Oregon, not too far from Portland. Best known among disc golfers for hosting the popular Beaver State Fling tournament, the track's creative, challenging holes in an idyllic state park with a picturesque river and majestic flora common to the northwestern U.S. have made it a must-play destination for over 20 years.
Notably, there are two courses at Milo McIver State Park, East and West. In 2025, only East made the top 100, but West wasn't far off. The history and general information about what the park is like to play hold up for both courses.
Milo McIver (East) Disc Golf Course is ranked #85 in the most recent World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 released annually by us here at UDisc. The rankings are based on millions of player ratings of over 16,000 disc golf courses worldwide on UDisc Courses, which is the most complete and regularly updated disc golf course directory in existence.
Read the whole post to get a full picture of Milo McIver or jump to a section that interests you most in the navigation below.
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- Basics: Times in top 100, year established, designers, cost to play, & availability
- History of Milo McIver Disc Golf Course
- How hard is it?
- What's it like to play?
- Three real five-star reviews
Milo McIver Disc Golf Course: Basic Info
- How many times has Milo McIver Disc Golf Course made the annual World's Best Disc Golf Courses top 100 since the rankings were first released in 2020?
Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Top 100? - When did Milo McIver Disc Golf Course open?
1996 - Who designed Milo McIver Disc Golf Course?
Original designers: David Vargas and Wally Raker. Designer of current layout: Aaron Kirschling - Is Milo McIver Disc Golf Course free or pay-to-play?
There is a parking fee to enter the state park but no extra fee to play the course. - When is Milo McIver Disc Golf Course available for public play?
Year-round from 7 a.m.-9p.m.
History of Disc Golf at Milo McIver
When you play at Milo McIver State Park, you might get the sense you're at a place that seems perfectly suited to disc golf. Many of its fairways are on large expanses of smooth grass that seem to be almost magically present in an otherwise thickly forested park. But it wasn't the work of the disc golf gods that created such an ideal landscape for a course.
"Milo McIver State Park opened in 1968, and before that it was private land that had been designed as a nine-hole ball golf course," said Patrick Buckley, longtime caretaker of Milo's disc golf course and designer of the layout seen each year at the park's most famous disc golf event: the Beaver State Fling. "The course was never completed, but when the state bought the land, there were already fairways with a drainage system built in."
The park never expanded on the infrastructure for ball golf that was already there, and it wasn't until the '90s that the story of disc golf in the park progressed. It was then that David Vargas and Wally Raker approached the park with the idea of installing a disc golf course on the property. After explaining the sport to park officials, they got permission, and Vargas and Raker began toying with layouts until they finally had a permanent 18 hole course playable by the late '90s.
"That original course was pretty short, especially by today's standards, and there were lots of birdies," Buckley explained. "But it was a great design that had fun shots and really used the terrain of the park well."
Buckley began helping with the course in 2002, and he designed layouts for tournaments with as many as 36 holes on the park's property – layouts clearly displaying the park's ability to accommodate more holes. It wasn't long before some area players began wondering if permanent expansion of the course was an option. One person who was particularly interested was one of the best local pros at the time: Aaron Kirschling.
Kirschling originally planned to design the expansion with a friend, but when that friend moved away suddenly, the energy Kirschling had for expansion seemed to go with him. But Buckley hadn't let the idea go and continued to encourage Kirschling to take on the task.
"I told him, 'Look, you gotta do this; your ideas sound great,'" Buckley said. "I don't want to take too much credit, but I do remember that phone call."
Kirschling let himself be nudged, and in the winter of '03-'04, he worked on the plans that would change the course into what players know and love today. However, Kirschling's plans called not just for more holes but a completely new feel to the course. Tee pads were moved back, holes were combined, and pins were moved to new locations. Milo was suddenly transformed from a 18-hole birdie fest into a 27-hole masterwork that could test the world's best players, and it's that layout that players still enjoy today.
The combination of challenge and the beauty of the scenery at Milo provided by the dense greenery and massive trees common to the northwestern U.S. have proven to be an effective lure for disc golfers. Buckley says the state park loves the course because it is one of its top three draws, which brings in revenue through parking fees.
Though the park's main layout has changed little since the early 2000s, that doesn't mean the course doesn't get constant attention. Buckley said there are frequent improvement and maintenance projects going on. He also pointed out that particular gratitude should be given to Jeff Mittl, the man who leads and organizes many of those projects.
"He's a big reason the course has continued to improve and grown into a destination course," Buckley said. "He's a really hard worker. It's funny because when I play with him at Milo, he's constantly looking around to do some work. He'll put his bag down and just go off somewhere clearing brush. Sometimes I just have to say, 'C'mon, let's just play today.'"
How Hard Is Milo McIver Disc Golf Course?
Milo McIver Disc Golf Course offers multiple 18-hole layouts, all of which are likely to be most fun for experienced disc golfers rather than beginners. This is how its easiest and hardest layouts based on score relative to par stack up:
| Name | Distance |
Technicality | Overall Difficulty | Par Rating* | Scoring Average* | |
| Easiest Layout | Milo McIver East (Short Tees) | Long | Technical | Challenging | 204 | +8 |
| Hardest Layout | Tournament East Pro Long Tees | Very Long | Not Technical | Challenging | 226 | +13 |
*Scoring average and par rating constantly adjust as more people score rounds with UDisc. These numbers reflect stats from the time of publication and may have changed slightly since then.
You can find this information on all of Milo McIver' layouts (with the exception of par rating) by checking out Milo McIver (East) Disc Golf Course on UDisc Courses.
To learn more about what the categories for distance, technicality, overall difficulty, and par rating mean, check out these posts:
What's It Like to Play at Milo McIver Disc Golf Course?
Something Buckley told us when we spoke with him about Milo really encapsulates the feeling that makes the course so unique.
"You're in the wilderness but you're playing on a manicured golf course," Buckley said. "You've got the river, blue herons, ospreys, eagles, owls – it's a real special feeling."
The juxtaposition of open fairways and dense, old forest is extremely rare in disc golf and, as Buckley pointed out, creates a sensation that's hard to replicate.
But beyond the feeling of Milo, there's what the actual disc golf is like. You can expect every aspect of your game to be challenged even if you opt to play the short tees rather than the punishing long ones.
On more open holes that utilize those fairways previously designed for ball golf, power is usually the name of the game. But distance alone won't be enough. There are always some trees, whether on or lining the fairway, forcing specific lines and placements from players seeking to set up the ideal next shot.
When taking on Milo's more wooded sections, you often need to hit very small gaps or face kicks that send discs down hills or into thick rough.
And then there are the places that combine woods and open fairways, with holes starting in the forest, going out to grassy freedom, and ending again in trees. These holes create the sensation of playing two very different types of golf in just one hole without feeling disjointed.
Along with all this variation in hole types come interesting changes in elevation and views of the beautiful Clackamas River. In the end, it probably suffices to say that what you can expect from a round at Milo is about everything most people dream about when they dream of disc golf. Except, in some cases, a lot of birdies.
Three Real Five Star Reviews of Milo McIver (East) Disc Golf Course
Three real reviews of Milo McIver (East) from disc golfers on UDisc:
Note that the publication date of this post reflects the last time we updated it. Some information has not been changed since the original publication in 2020.
