Offbeat Easter Tradition: Death Valley Golf

Brunch it up, hunt for eggs, then swing on the lowest golf course on the planet.

SPRINGTIME OBSERVATIONS: Many people will purchase an egg dye kit in the coming days, and eggs, lots of 'em, at least a dozen or two (or five), and the fake bright green grass that lines the bottom of the basket (the better to cradle all of those newly dyed eggs). Some revelers will purchase pretty dresses and linen suits and Easter bonnets, or the making for an Easter bonnet (fresh flowers are excellent). And will hams be bought? Many a ham and Peep and buns, to fill out the table. But few people find their golf clubs, and golf wear, and plan on a few hours on the links.

FOR GOLF, though it is a sport made for fine weather, which spring can often deliver, is not a big Easter tradition, except in Death Valley, where a Golf Scramble happens each Easter Sunday on the "world's lowest elevation golf course." That's the Furnace Creek Golf Course, of course, but the Inn at Furnace Creek isn't just about golfing on Easter. There is a full-scale brunch in the Inn's pretty and historic dining room, and an Easter egg hunt earlier in the day. As for the setting? Picture the Inn's iconic Oasis Gardens, and picture your tot finding a silver or gold egg. If they do, they'll get a prize. And, yep, as with many an egg hunt, prizes go by age group, so there is that. As for the egg dye? That's over at the Ranch at Furnace Creek, on Saturday, April 4, in the afternoon, by the pool.

AS FOR THE SPRING WILDFLOWERS? The powerful heat of late March is making the buds wilt at lower elevations but the Death Valley National Park Facebook page advises to look up, in higher places, for the desert's floral show.

AND IF YOU CAN'T GET ENOUGH GOLF... the annual Spring Fling at Furnace Creek Golf Course tees up just days after Easter hops away.

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