Golf Finds a Way: ‘Walkabout Mini Golf’ Launches New Dino-Themed Course, ‘Raptor Cliff’s’

Hidden among the redwoods of the Pacific Northwest—but advertised at every exit for the past hundred miles—is a little slice of roadside Americana, inhabited by some of the most impressive and famous creatures from 65 million years ago.

Welcome…to Raptor Cliff’s, the latest course for Walkabout Mini Golf. The apostrophe in “Raptor Cliff’s” is important… and a clue for a discovery in the course. This is no mere time-traveling foray into the past. Raptor Cliff’s is an homage to the roadside attractions of yesteryear, like Oregon’s Prehistoric Gardens and Enchanted Forest, carnival-like curiosities patronized by thousands of families every year on their way from point A to B. It’s a place to stretch your legs, play 18 holes of mini golf, and take in the country air before you all cram back into the station wagon and continue the journey.

We sat down with Don Carson, Senior Art Director at Mighty Coconut, to reminisce about old road trips, compare favorite dinosaurs, and discuss what it’s like to work on a half-dozen courses at once.

Don Carson: We listen closely to those course themes our players really wish we would explore in the future. A dinosaur course has been very high on that list but we wanted to make sure we were able to give it our own unique “Walkabout spin”. Creating a Jurassic Park-reminiscent or primeval course seemed so very obvious and so, although it was on our to-do list for a while, we hadn’t really found the perfect setting—until we landed on the theme we explore in Raptor Cliff’s.

I grew up in San Francisco and we frequently took trips up Highway 101 through the redwoods. Along the way we would visit some of the many roadside tourist attractions, like the Trees of Mystery with its giant sculptures of Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox Babe. We felt like if we could mix the nostalgia of those 1970s summer road trips with friendly dinosaurs, we might have something special and original to offer.

DC: My childhood is a jumble of the various roadside attractions we visited during our coastal drives. My favorites are those attractions that were family-owned and operated. Those had a friendly, approachable quality that we hoped to capture in Raptor Cliff’s.

The Enchanted Forest on I-5 in Oregon is a place like that. Not as polished as a Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm, all of the details are crafted by the owners and there is a homey quality to the theming and environments. You get the impression that the tours, the gift shop, and the ice cream stand are all operated by various members of the same family.

DC: We were really trying to create our own friendly and slightly goofy take on encountering dinosaurs. We also wanted to capture that feeling of wandering through the redwoods and then finally spilling out onto the California/Oregon coastline. We sometimes host our design retreats on the West Coast so we are pretty familiar with that landscape and we really wanted to share the feelings we have when visiting that rugged part of the world.

As far as animation is concerned: Some courses demand more animations than others, and it depends on what our players’ expectations might be. In this case we needed the dinosaurs to feel alive when you encounter them and not just like static statues.

DC: We are constantly learning and growing as we build each course. We also invent new techniques and effects with each DLC that we can then bring to future courses. What you see today is the culmination of all the work that has come before.

Our team’s workflow is constantly evolving. We have no downtime at Mighty Coconut—with multiple courses coming out each year, we are always working hard on half a dozen courses at a time. Our biggest challenge is delivering something new and special with each release without completely wearing ourselves out in the process. A constant balance.

DC: My favorite dinosaur in the course is the chubby, dopey T. Rex at Hole 1. One of the very first concept sketches I did when we started working on Raptor Cliff’s was of the “drive-thru” redwood tree with a grinning T. Rex looking out from the other side of the hole cut in the huge tree.

For me, it captured in one image the mood we were trying to set with the entire course. We wanted you to be able to encounter dinosaurs, but we also wanted your first reaction to be to hug them and want to bring them home with you.

DC: Although we listen to our players when it comes to designing new courses, we are also checking off an internal list of themes our team wants to work on most. This year and into 2026 we are busily working on some of my very favorite themed courses, I can’t wait until you get to see what we’ve been up to!

DC: At Mighty Coconut we strive to showcase what virtual reality is capable of, especially when it comes to building rich, immersive environments that can be shared with others. The core motivation of all of our courses is to surprise and delight you with what we come up with next, but most importantly we do it so you can explore and share that experience with your friends and family.

Walkabout Mini Golf and the new Raptor Cliff’s course are available now on the Meta Horizon Store!