Salome Heights Golf Course

The high Sonoran Desert of western Arizona doesn't see many golf courses, and Salome — a small highway town along US-60, roughly halfway between Phoenix and the California border — keeps it that way. This stretch of La Paz County sits at the edge of the Harquahala Valley, ringed by rugged desert mountain ranges, where saguaros and creosote define the horizon and summer temperatures regularly push past 110 degrees. Golf out here is a different proposition than the resort corridors of Scottsdale or Tucson — it's a locals' game, unhurried and unpretentious.

Salome Heights reflects that ethos. An 18-hole layout serving a community that numbers only a few hundred full-time residents, it draws the kind of players who value an open tee sheet and fresh air over manicured prestige. Desert golf at this level tends to reward shot-making over power, with the natural terrain — caliche, hardpan, sparse desert rough — doing the work that elaborate architecture might elsewhere.

For visitors driving US-60 between Phoenix and Quartzsite, Salome Heights offers a genuine detour: a round played against raw Sonoran landscape, far from the crowds, on a course that exists simply because people here love the game.