Getting the flavor of...Tee time in red rock country

Tee time in red rock country

Affordability is helping make St. George, Utah, an “increasingly popular golfing getaway,” said Matt Lait in the Los Angeles Times. “Lush greens amid black lava rocks and red sandstone cliffs” mark the area as “one of the more scenic desert golf destinations” in the U.S. Yet value may be its most “alluring draw.” Greens fees at St. George’s 12 courses range from $50 to $125, significantly less than at comparable courses in Palm Springs, Calif., or Scottsdale, Ariz. Most courses include carts, unlimited rounds, and range balls in their fees, and a few even offer lunch packages or reduced “twilight rates” starting as early as 10 a.m. Ledges, a “beautiful 7,200-yard championship course,” was “virtually deserted” during my midweek morning game. Like nearby Sand Hollow and Coral Canyon, it aspires to become a private club one day. Until that happens, its open fairways give St. George the feel of a “secret golf mecca.” Contact: redrockgolftrail.com

Chilling in Minneapolis

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To Minnesotans, Minneapolis in the winter is a snowy playground, said Sadie Dingfelder in The Washington Post. After a few days of snowshoeing and winter festivals, I felt that way too. Shortly after my arrival, a friend trained me in Twin Cities–style stoicism at Ice Chamber, a bar made of ice where “fur-capped” bartenders serve drinks in ice glasses and patrons toss their empties into a fire pit. The next day, I would prove as graceful in snowshoes as “a walrus on an elliptical machine.” But boots worked well enough at Wood Lake Nature Center, a 150-acre preserve that feels “miles from civilization.” Its three-mile loop provided such an “otherworldly trek,” I returned for a second run-through on skis. One night, during that weekend’s winter festival, I followed skaters along “a candlelit path over two frozen, snow-covered lakes.” It seemed impossible that we all were enjoying the same landscape I’d initially found so “intimidating.” Contact: minneapolis.org