Lost Valley is a camping resort in the middle of east central Missouri that hosts a 9-hole disc golf course among many other amenities. This course is clearly old and not maintained much by the property owners, but still provides a place for campers that chuck plastic to get some putting practice in.

Location of Lost Valley is technically Owensville according to their address, but is more accurately known as the middle of nowhere. To get here from a larger highway, you'll have to navigate multiple state and county highways. Once in the resort, the disc golf course is on a hillside near the lodge, with parking near hole 1's basket.

Amenities are robust at Lost Valley. They have hundreds of camping sites that are accessible for tents and campers, many of which have full hook ups. There's also condos and cabins on site as well. Other outdoor activities include fishing, boating, a horse stable, a dog park, horseshoes, multiple playgrounds, and a pool. The expo center also has game rooms, a theater, and mini golf (which is pirate themed!).

Course Equipment is limited to the 9 baskets on site, but as many of us know, sometimes having the same number of baskets on site as there are holes is a win in of itself.

Course Design leaves a lot to be desired. That being said, it does include some elevation, and also has some tricky shots through trees at times. I certainly have seen worse designs out there in terms of variety.

Course Difficulty favors newer players due to the distances, though some of the shots through the trees will prove difficult if you're having issues with accuracy.

Course Equipment is one of the big things you will notice right away with this course. The equipment is limited to just the baskets on site, which are original DISCatcher Pros according to UDisc. I'm not sure if that's accurate and don't even know what original DISCatchers look like, but whatever these baskets are, they are clearly older than I am. They have one set of chains that are about as wide as marksman baskets from DD, and the baskets (if you can call them that) are about as deep as two putters stacked on top of each other. They are painted white and look like they have been peeling for a while. The only other course equipment on site are pavers near each basket that I'm guessing are meant to be the tee location for the next basket.

Course Design is rough, as the course plays in and around itself with many intended fairways overlapping or playing close to each other. The closes pin to the parking lot is actually hole 1, meaning you have to walk to hole 8's pin to find hole 1's tee; do yourself a favor and just start with hole 2. The whole course just plays from one basket to the other essentially. None of the holes top 180 feet, with multiple holes being less than 100 feet long. While some holes play around trees, most of the holes on site just require a putter or midrange shot that is somewhat straight to get well into circle 1.

Navigation, as stated above[/b] is hard without signage. The holes mostly have numbers on the top plates, but some plates are barely present, and they are hard to read from the tee pad of the same hole. You could honestly make up your own layout and it would likely be just as good as the actual layout itself.

Bugs can be especially bad at times at this course, being so close to one of the lakes on site. There are some resident horseflies that did not help in my enjoyment of this disc golf course.

Many of the amenities at Lost Valley are well taken care of and in great shape. Disc golf is not one of them, as this course is clearly an afterthought. Once the baskets in place fully break down, I wouldn't be surprised if they are not replaced.

Lost Valley is membership only, and you must be a current guest to enter the property. This means that this course is not accessible to disc golfers passing by that want to check it out, making it the most exclusive crappy 9-hole I have ever played and perhaps ever will play. That being said, all of the baskets are accounted for, which I guess has become my threshold for getting a 0.5.

It's kind of a shame too, considering the amount of land that is available to Lost Valley. The property contains 537 acres and has plenty of open and wooded spaces. You could probably make quite a nice 18 hole somewhere on property. That being said, I imagine the number of disc golfers that camp here is fairly limited, making for a target audience that is a little too niche to put money into a nice course as opposed to more common camping activities.

If you happen to be staying at Lost Valley and want to practice your putting and approaches, there is a disc golf option here for you, and it's the only one within 20 or so miles. My in-laws have a membership here meaning I typically am at Lost valley one or two times a year, but I would say that I am not likely to play this course again any time soon.

But hey, you all might not have known that there's a decrepit 9-hole course here, and now you do. So you're welcome!