Fall in San Diego at the Bates Nut Farm Pumpkin Patch

The SoCal summer heat is finally gone and crisp, cool fall air has moved in! I love keeping the windows open all day long, and it helps with the ridiculous San Diego electric bills too (I’m talking to you, SDG&E… who raises electric prices in the summer… when it gets up to 100 degrees some days *major eye roll*). We’ve never been to a real pumpkin patch, and of course that’s on all the fall bucket lists nowadays. So we decided to head up to Bates Nut Farm, in Valley Center. It’s about an hour north of us. After researching different San Diego pumpkin patches, it looked like the best choice, and one of the few that had a real pumpkin patch, not pre-picked pumpkins sprawled out to choose from. The weather was perfect, and when we got home, I made a big batch of Cincinnati chili and cornbread. Perfect ending to a fun fall day with the fam! By the way – If you’re looking for some spring activities in San Diego, check out my flower field post here.

More than just pumpkins

Aside from a huge pumpkin patch, with lots of pumpkins, Bates also had other things to see and do. There were hayrides (one pulled by a tractor and another pulled by two big white horses), a straw maze, pony rides, a petting zoo, lots of tents with food and drinks and local vendors selling their homemade goods, a store with the farm’s regular products, a bounce house and slides for the kids, and more. It costs $5 for parking, and each experience is an additional cost, but it was all very reasonable. And their large pumpkins were $0.50/lb and they had big scales at checkout to weigh your pumpkin. I’m not really sure how much the huge pumpkins weigh, but I thought that seemed like a reasonable price.

Pumpkin patches in San Diego

If you’re looking for a fun family fall day, here’s a few different pumpkin patches in the San Diego Area that all looked like good options while I was researching where to go:

Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center. (I recommend going early when they open. We got there an hour after they opened and it was fine. But when we left, there was a very very long line of cars on the road waiting to get in.)
Oma’s Pumpkin Patch in Lakeside
Mountain Valley Ranch in Ramona
Julian Mining Company, also called Julian Farm & Orchard, in Julian (This one is a little bit of a drive, but Julian is a cute little town and you could make a fun day trip out of it! We really wanted to go apple picking AND get pumpkins there, but I guess the u-pick apples are done with, so we decided not to make the drive)
Pumpkin Station has several areas around San Diego

What are some of your family’s fall traditions? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

Kirsten