The original course at Hudson Mills Metropark is a very well maintained and easy to navigate 24-hole disc golf course. The park is located just outside of Dexter, Michigan. To reach the course take US-23 to exit 49, North Territorial Road. Head west for 8 miles to the park entrance on the left.
Once you enter the park you will need to pay for both parking ($5.00 per car) and disc golf ($2.00 per person). You will pay for your parking/entrance fee when entering the park, and you can pay for disc golf at both the park entrance and the activity center located near the parking lot, between the two disc golf courses. Scorecards and pencils (with erasers) are available at both locations as well.
After you pay your entrance fee, continue through the intersection at the pay booth and make the next right into the parking lot. From the parking lot you will be able to see the activity center near the back of the lot. The activity center is air conditioned, has very clean restrooms, and a snack bar with hamburgers, fries, chicken strips, etc available for purchase. The activity center is just one of the many things that makes this complex a disc golfer's paradise. The park staff welcomes disc golfers and accommodates them like no other place I have been to.
The first tee for the original course is located to the right/west of the parking lot and activity center. Just from seeing the parking lot, activity center, and first hole you can see that the work put into the park and course is amazing. This is one of the cleanest facilities, course and otherwise, that I have been to in quite some time.
The course is very easy to navigate. The park staff does a wonderful job of mowing and creating walking paths that lead you from the previous basket to the next tee with ease. There was only one spot on the original course where we had any issues at all and that was between holes 13 and 14. There are two paths that lead away from the basket for hole 13, one is the nature trail, one is the path to hole 14. You will want to take the smaller of the two paths.
The paths and navigation are just the beginning of the wonderful amenities the designers and park staff have provided throughout the course. There are two sets of huge concrete tee pads on each hole and tee signs, they are wooden posts, with distance, par, and map on both the long and short tee pad for each hole. I thought this was a great tough since many of the courses only provided detailed information/tee signs at one of the tee pads. Another great addition is the amount of benches and trash cans throughout the course. The course isn't exactly shady, but in most cases where there is shade, there are benches which is great. The plentiful trash cans, and of course park staff, seem to do a great job on this course, as it is one of the cleanest I have seen. I don't' remember seeing any litter on the course and none of the piles of trash laying beside the trash can that you will find at many courses. The last great thing about the original course is the amount of restrooms you'll find during your round. There are restrooms at the start (activity center) and vault toilets near basket 5 and basket 8.
As for the play of the course, it's solid. While, like others ave stated, there isn't a signature hole on the course and some of the holes may seem repetitive, there isn't a shot they left out. Hyzers, Anyhyzers, straight shots, they have them. Wooded and open holes, they have them. The original course, while mostly flat, does make great use out of what little elevation this park has to offer. I think that's a key to whether a course was designed by golfers with golfers in mind, or whether it was thrown in by the parks department for a cheap family activity, and this park and both courses, as with most of the courses in the area, was designed with real disc golfers in mind.
The last thing I will say is that there are some holes one this course, specifically the lettered holes, can seem a little monotonous as I mentioned before. When you read this, and see this on the course, keep in mind that there are 48 holes in this park. I think with that many holes you are bound to have some overlap, especially with the courses being so close to one another, and for being one of the very few cons of the course is nothing to really hold against the course or the complex.
Overall the Hudson Mill complex is easily the most accommodating public park I have ever seen when it comes to disc golf. The courses are both wonderful and the park staff respects the disc golfers and are glad to have them playing their great courses. If you are in the Ann Arbor area this course and the monster course are must plays and with the Red Hawk course at Independence Lake being so close its definitely an area worth going out of your way for.