BEAR MOUNTAIN RANCH and DESERT CANYON
Location: Central Washington
Distance: 29.8 miles
Total trip time (including golf): 16 hours
As a journalist, I’m supposed to be unbiased. So, I’m going to stop being a journalist for a minute and simply be myself. Bear Mountain Ranch is, quite simply, the most enjoyable destination golf course in the state. Views that go for miles, memorable hole after memorable hole … if I could only play one Washington course, this would be it. You owe it to yourself and to your fellow golfers to make the trip to Chelan.
And since you’re heading all that way, make a day of it and play Desert Canyon in Orondo. Where BMR has the feel of a mountain course with trees and dramatic ridges, Desert Canyon is a sprawling test of will, 6,700 yards of pure joy on a ridge overlooking the Columbia River and Cascade Mountains. If the views don’t get you, the epic, downhill, 668-yard par-5 sixth most certainly will.
Leave Seattle at 6 a.m., tee off at 9:30 at Desert Canyon, play Bear Mountain at 3 p.m. and be back home by 10. Now that’s an incredible day.