I medium sized 9 hole around a park Its actually a pretty fun course, elevation change, different landscape changes, visually appealing holes off the tee pad,

" Gulchers" (homeless riff raff). they have some lurkers there that have made the fairways their home.
poor signage/tees

Short course that plays around a multi use park. Skate/Bike/Scooter park across the parking lot that may allow for a family outing if not all family members play DG. Restrooms at the park.

Technical shots required and trees and heavy vegetation are a factor.

As I recall all of the holes are less than 300 feet, so for me driving each one was not a problem unless a tree or shrub reached out and grabbed my disc in flight...

Fun, short course.

Signage is poor and for a first time player it was hard to navigate the course.

Sadly, the drug use by some local kids seemed much harder than that of typical MJ. The group of doped up kids were nice enough and provided me guidance on holes 6-9.

I played this course while it was raining and the canopy of trees allowed for a round pretty much free of muddy shoes.

The course plays around a small multi-use park, staying out of the central gal fields and playing mostly through the woods. The course is short, but fairly technical with plenty of trees in play to make you hit specific lines and brush waiting to punish errant shots. A couple holes make you shape some interesting lines to have a good look at birdie. Elevation comes into play a little, no huge hills but lots of small ups and downs with a couple tricky rollaway pin locations.

Half of the tees are nice and flat, the other half are rutted out and unlevel making for poor footing on drives. The signage is in poor shape, many of the tee signs are missing or vandalized badly enough to be unreadable. That combined with long unmarked walks between holes makes the course tricky to follow the first time through, especially with random paths leading in different directions from some of the baskets. The walking path is in play on several holes, with a couple blind corners where a pedestrian can come into play without being visible from the tee.

This course has some fun shots, if I lived nearby I'd probably play it fairly often when I only had time for a quick round. It's too bad the maintenance and navigation are so bad, it makes it a lot less friendly to new players picking up the sport and travelers passing through. Beginners will find the course tough, but not too long. More experienced players won't be tested much, but it has some nice putter and midrange challenges.

Cooper Gulch has the same vibe that the other two nine hole courses (Manila Bay & Mad River) have. That is, the typical nine park course around here, kind of a fun little throw, maybe a little run down, lots of shady characters hanging around but a course that has a niche in disc golf and gets a decent amount of use.

The gnarly looking, bent over twisted trees made for some interesting and challenging approach shots.

The holes are fairly short, easy birdies. It's definitely plays as a recreational level course.

I actually had kind of a hard time finding my way around. There were paths leading off in all sorts of direction. I needed a guide!

The creek was pretty rank. I'd try to keep my discs out of it at all costs.

Mix of natural and concrete pads.

I guess the lovely coastal California climate attracts the homeless types. I'm not used to seeing them in such numbers up north. Makes me a little uneasy.

Of the three local nine hole courses, I'd probably frequent Coops the least. I was a little more comfortable over at Manila Bay.

Lots of discers out enjoying themselves. Variety of shots and approaches.

No signage. The tees were indicated by footprints in the dusty dirt. Course did not have flow. Lots of garbage, signs of homeless. Will be frustrating for beginners like me.

Don't even try the " back 9" without a guide.

-Lots of foliage make for some challenging lines.
-Holes are relatively easy to navigate.
-Ball fields are good for working on distance, also skate-park looks nice.

-While it does appear to be getting cleaner, it still has some trash around, evidence of homeless dwellings.
-Foliage is easy to lose a disc in.
-Muddy and or swampy, though like a previous review pointed out, not much more than the other courses in the area.

Overall it's a decent course. More technical than distance holes. As with any course in Humboldt you'll need a rag and good shoes. If you're traveling through the area I would recommend the courses at CR and HSU, but, for those that live here it's a fine change of pace.

UPDATE (4-14-13)
Thought it was worth mentioning that there is a tone-pole back nine here. You will need a guide for that for the first time around but I found it to be very enjoyable. Lots of challenging shots, dense brush, adventurous you could say. Muddier than the front nine, and I'd recommend pants due to the brush, also some trash heaps around.

In general this whole course has gotten more fun the more I play it. I do wish it was cleaner (if it was I would give it a higher rating), but given the location, well, I understand why it is like it is. Anyways, hope this helps.

Lots of trees makes for a challenging course.
Good sized parking lot.
Play area for the youngins if you bring them along.
Softball fields make for a good distance practice area.

Standing water = Mosquitos.
Holes not numbered correctly takes directions and a few times playing to get the order correct.
Bumbs and Pot Heads all over.
Lots of brushy areas to lose a disc.

IT PLAYS QUICK , SO IF YOU GOT A MINUTE THESE NINE HOLES ARE FUN.

THE OVER GROWN FOLIAGE MAKES IT EASY TO MISS PLACE A DISC FOR A MINUTE, AND THE WET WATER IS SMELLY AND THE LOCAL FOOT TRAFFIC IS RIFF RAFF. BUT YOUR THERE TO PLAY SO KEEP YOUR FOCUS AND NEVER MIND THE BUMS

AN SOFT HELIX ON 5 WILL GET YOU THROUGH THE TREES. VERY SIMULAR TO THROWING HOLE 9 AT COLLEGE OF THE RED WOODS

After reading many of the negative reviews the gulch got I felt like it deserved some defence. Though I have noticed some of the previously mentioned, bums, trash, mud, mosquitos, stinky water, etc. Its honestly not that much different anywhere in the area. Gulch has more trash and homeless but no more than other courses I've played on the East Coast or in the Cen. Valley that get good reviews. It does appear that work is being done to make the course a cleaner, safer place to play.
DETAILS: Though #1 is simple enough the shots that follow offer a variety of Hyzers, Tomohawks, Annhyzers and whatever else you can throw. Its worth a stop and also has a pretty sweet skatepark next door, which can never hurt

Easy to navigate, creative holes. Convenient location.

It's built in a swamp. Mosquitoes and squishy in the summer, downright mud pit in the winter. Wear boots or trashed tennis shoes.

It's better than it was when it was created. Druggies/swamp paraphernalia are/is less common now. Don't bother taking a driver, mid-range and putter is fine. Decent practice for the short game.

-Varied throws needed for every hole
-Some tunnel shots and good elevation change
-Nice flow and lay out
-Friendly locals

-Can get crowded
-Some holes cross pathway of the park
-Some holes can get flooded after a hard rain
-No tee pads

Good course for the city of Eureka if you dont want to go to Arcata. Has some nice holes that can challenge a good player, but also easy holes for the beginner. Overall a good course for the use of the area and it is in the middle of Eureka.

Easy to find holes, nice baskets, challenging but fun to learn on.

maybe a bit short for more advanced players

I have only just started hucking, and cooper's gulch is the only course I have been to. That having been said, it has been a great course to learn on. It was not difficult to find or navigate, but I was still challenged by more than a few of the 9 holes here. All in all, a good course, but probably not the best course ever.

Pretty easy to find course
Close for locals
Some challenging shots

The "Elm Street" hole is a bit over the top. We shot thumbers, tomahawks, sidearm, bh, nothing could make it more than 3/4 down this short hole.
We didn't run into any of the tweakers, but we did find a couple of their sleeping and bathroom areas.....nasty.
You can birdie nearly all of the holes.
The course is really short
Couldn't find 9, ended up playing from the dirt to the taped up telephone poles.

The course itself isn't too bad considering what they had to work with, but they could also do a lot more with this course if they put in the time to clean it up a bit. If you're driving through Humboldt stop by Humboldt Glass blowers, they've got a nice selection of discs and the owners/workers have a good vibe.

- Coopers Gulch is a decent 9-hole DG course. The holes are well designed for what they have to work with.
- Hole 3 could be on any DG course and would be a great hole.
- They fixed the course so that there is 9 holes now... without the use of taped telephone poles.

- OK... to explain the review title:
Once - about the last time I played there (went back recently just to be fair) - my drive landed in a pile of what I would call Human Shit! I didn't see it a first and when I picked up my disc it was all over my hand. I started freaking out because you never know what kind of diseases you could catch from one of the tweaker-bum-heroin addict locals. Yikes!
- The local tewaker-bums are sketch... and for that matter so are some of the local Coop golfers. There is just a different vibe there.
- Most holes fairly straigh forward birdies.
- Creek on side isn't as nasty as Manilla's, but still bad. My hand was burning and turned red after grabbing a disc from it.

- If I was to rank Humboldt's 9-hole courses, I would rank Coopers 1, Mad River 2, and Manilla 3 - with Coopers and the River being a toss-up and Manilla being a distant 3rd.
- My Best Score: -6

-easy to get to for most humboldtians
-pretty good selection of shots and holes when you consider what they're working with
-multiple pin locations
-#3 is a bitch in the long position (i roll downhill 40-50 feet about every third round. AAARRRRGHHH!!!)

-not quite enough acreage to make a really legit course here
-tweekers in the bushes (though sometimes its just a happy drunk guy glad to bullshit for a minute)
-can get crowded (for humboldt)
-1A, 3A, 4, 6, and 8 are all very reachable straight away shots (so is 5 but the window is tiny)

-in the last couple months they added a new hole (quite challenging, #5) making 9 baskets total. They also moved #4 back making it a bit tougher, and moved the teepad for #6 back. A badly taped off telephone pole used to act as hole 4, but isn't needed now...

Coop is what it is. Easily accessible and in a public park that gets some use. That being said, its a great course considering the amount and lay of the land. There was obviously a lot of really good course designing on just enough land to make it happen. You don't show up to a course in Eureka expecting the Redwood Curtain feel...

Nice baskets on every hole
Signs on every hole
Most pins visable
Multiple pin locations on most holes
Good amount of trees
Skatepark on site

Tweekers on the course
Short holes
Short course
A local botanist told me that the creek that flows along the course has lots of salmonella
Usualy crowded
Big crowds make a short round take alot longer
It's in Eureka
Muddy and nasty most of the winter.

This course is getting better, there are alot of good people working hard on it. They have put in new basket locations that are longer and funner. The last few times I went down there, there were less tweekers and bums there, which made it better, but there have been alot in the past.

Edit: New hole 5 was put in to replace the hole taken out by skatepark bulding.