At the beginning of the month, I posted about Single Palm Pumpkin Patch, a wonderful family attraction on the far West side of Fresno. For those of you located closer to the Eastern parts of the city, you may enjoy making the short drive to Hillcrest Pumpkin Patch in Reedley, CA, a lovely, family-run, seasonal treasure. Hillcrest, now it its 54th year of operation is located in a heavily-wooded (yet easy enough to find) area of Reedley, and offers picturesque outdoor exploration for the whole family to enjoy.

Hillcrest will delight with a pumpkin patch throughout October and a Christmas tree farm in December. A unique offering of Hillcrest is a beautiful half-scale steam engine train which takes visitors on a 15 minute ride around the farm. During October, Hillcrest is open on weekends from 10am – 5pm, is admission free, and offers visitors a nature trail and play house to explore, $4 train rides, $2 hay rides, snow cones and hot concessions including much-famed corn dogs. Class field trips are also available, and include a pumpkin for each child, hayride, story time and use of the nature trails, playhouse and picnic areas for just $6 per child. Interested teachers should contact Hillcrest at 559-638-2762.

If you enjoy pumpkin hunting at Hillcrest this month, you’ll definitely want to mark your calendars for the Pajama Christmas event in December in which Hillcrest will remain open after dark and offer moonlit train rides, holiday music and lights, fresh baked cookies and a hot cocoa bar to enjoy around fire pits. All guests are encouraged to wear their comfy and cozy pajamas for this special family event. Tickets are sold in advance to ensure groups aren’t too big to make the event enjoyable, so if you’re interested – be sure to snag your tickets well in advance. This event is quite popular.