8 Best Pumpkin Patches and Festivals in the West

You’ll find a windfall of fall fun at these classic harvest festivals. Cut pumpkins from the vine alongside one of the world’s largest corn mazes. Meander through a flower garden overflowing with pumpkins. Take a riverside hayride to a pumpkin patch. And play more games with pumpkins than you knew existed, including bowling, checkers, slingshotting, and smashing. 

Viola’s Pumpkin Patch in Flagstaff, Arizona 

Sept. 26–Oct. 31

Swap the typical farm setting for a flower garden at this enchanting pumpkin patch. Blossoms in seasonal hues of saffron, turmeric, and paprika brighten paths between hay bale towers topped with pumpkins and scarecrows, while spiderwebs are spun between gravestones, skeletons, and towering plants. No wonder the Viola’s autumnal ambiance is as popular with couples taking romantic strolls as it is with little ones painting pumpkins or squealing as they run through the straw bale maze. Kids of all ages can play old-fashioned carnival-style games like throwing stuffed witches into cauldrons, tossing rings onto pumpkin heads, and (“everybody’s favorite,” according to owner Robyn Walters) lobbing toilet paper rolls into a real toilet.

Cool Patch Pumpkins in Dixon, California 

Sept. 19-Oct. 31

Every fall, this family farm between San Francisco and Sacramento looks like an enormous UFO stamped a 40-plus-acre crop circle in its fields. Actually, it’s the world’s largest corn maze—a twisting, geometric enigma that typically takes about 1.5 to two hours to navigate. Fuel up for the feat (or reward yourself afterward) with a tri-tip sandwich or a caramel macchiato. Then, hop on a hayride, watch the kids clamber over the giant hay castle and romp in the corn kernel bath, and take photo ops with the Minions-themed scarecrows. Finally, head to the U-pick pumpkin patch to select your future jack-o’-lanterns, decorative gourds, and edible squashes from among 50 varieties.

Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay, California 

Oct. 17-18

This charming coastal town, known as the “world pumpkin capital,” serves up a bumper crop of gourd times. The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival takes over Main Street with the Great Pumpkin Parade and Pumpkin Weigh-Off, showcasing gargantuan specimens that can top 2,000 pounds. Marvel at Farmer Mike, the “Picasso of pumpkin carvers,” as he sculpts spectacular figures, then carve your own Michelangelo-esque masterpiece. Live music on three stages pumps up the volume at this pumpkinpalooza as you peruse fine arts and crafts, watch a pie-eating contest, and take part in a costume competition. 

If you can’t make the festival, Lemos Farm’s Pumpkin Patch will more than make up for it. Here you can scout out pumpkins for purchase, tuck into pie on a hayride, and indulge in pumpkin ice cream on the ghost train. Extend your stay with pony rides, a haunted house, a farm slide, gem mining, a petting zoo, and more.

Edgewater Farms Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch in Townsend, Montana 

Sept. 25-Oct. 31, Fridays and Saturdays

Edgewater Farms basks in a bucolic setting by the banks of the Missouri River. It’s the perfect backdrop for taking a waterside hay ride to the pumpkin patch and picking out multicolored gourds. Families can wander through the 12-acre Wild West-themed corn maze, shoot apples and paintballs from cannons, play pumpkin checkers and cornhole, and try out straw bale bowling. The bambinos can wade in the corn kernel box, clamber through the tire playground, scale a climbing hill, zip down a straw bale castle slide, and dig in the mine excavator pit. Refuel with food truck fare, fresh-made kettle corn, cookies, and butterscotchy Scotcheroos. 

Lattin Farms Fall Festival in Fallon, Nevada 

Sept. 26-Oct. 31, Fridays and Saturdays

This fifth-generation family farm proudly grows pumpkins for its annual Fall Festival, when you can trundle in a wagon to cut the veggies from the vine. Weave through a 5-acre corn maze that celebrates the 250th birthday of the United States. Then, take hay rides, chug along in a train constructed from barrels fashioned into cows, and feed goats and chickens in Critterville. Kids can fly on ziplines, bounce on a giant jump pad, run through a straw bale maze, and rope cattle and race stick ponies in the Wild West area. Adults can shop at the Saturday craft fairs and check out historic tools from this 1909 farm. Nosh on pulled pork, burgers, chili dogs, and treats from the onsite bakery. And on Oct. 10 and Oct. 17, you can stuff your own scarecrow.

Windy Creek Farm in Cheyenne, Wyoming 

Sept. 26-Oct. 25, weekends only

Perhaps it was fate that led sustainable farmer Autumn Ferguson to launch Autumn Fest, which offers a bounty of pumpkin-related fun. You can clip your favorite pumpkins from the U-pick patch. Catapult pumpkins at targets with a giant slingshot. Throw a strike in pumpkin bowling. And smash ugly pumpkins to smithereens with a bat (the mushy remains get fed to the farm’s mini-Hereford cows). Children can gallivant through a hay maze, slide down a hay pyramid, and choo-choo on a train. At the kids zone in the corral, they can make music with old kitchenware, toss a jack-o’-lantern beanbag, dig around in the corn bed, and play giant Jenga. Families can shop for crafts like crocheted chickens and seasonal wreaths in the barn market, hang out with therapy goats, and enjoy food truck fare, plus fresh pumpkin bread and real pumpkin lattes. Part of the proceeds from the event go to local nonprofits, including Special Olympics Wyoming and John J Foundation for Kids.

Cornbelly’s in Spanish Fork, Utah

Sept. 4 to Oct. 31, closed Sundays

In 1996, Cornbelly’s owner Brett Herbst (which, fittingly, means “autumn” in German) created what was then the largest corn maze in the West. The attraction sparked corn maze mania and marked the launch of his company, The MAiZE, which has since designed more than 6,000 mazes around the world. Herbst and family go equally big at Cornbelly’s theme park-like fall extravaganza on their Spanish Fork farm. You can cut pumpkins from the vine in the U-pick patch, wander through pumpkin-themed sculptures, and navigate the huge corn maze that will honor Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library. Get your thrills on dizzying rides like the Cornado, Twisted Apple, Barn Swing, and Bungee Bouncer. Or go slower and cruise through the fields on the Trick-or-Treat Train, blast apples and paintballs from cannons, monkey around on a ropes course, and cuddle with farm animals.