Big Trees Golf Course

Wawona sits at the southern end of Yosemite National Park, and Big Trees GC is one of the more unusual places to play golf in America — a 9-hole layout (played twice for 18) operating within the boundaries of a national park, surrounded by towering sequoias and the kind of scenery that makes it genuinely difficult to keep your eyes on the ball. The course dates to the late 19th century, making it one of California's oldest, and it has the relaxed, unhurried character you'd expect from a mountain course that has never taken itself too seriously.

At par 70, the layout is on the shorter side, but the elevation, the tight corridors of trees, and the sometimes unpredictable mountain conditions keep things honest. This is not a course you play to test your game against a championship benchmark — you play it because of where it is.

The Wawona Hotel nearby is a Victorian-era landmark, and the whole experience feels more like stepping into California's early tourism history than a conventional round of golf. Come for the setting; the golf is a genuinely pleasant bonus.