Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch

I thought I would break away from tradition today by blogging about a place that has no celebrity or film connection – Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch, which is without a doubt the BEST pumpkin patch I have ever been to in my life!  I may be breaking from the norm more often in the coming months actually, by turning my site into more of a guide to L.A. than strictly to filming locations.  The focus will, of course, always be movie, TV and pop culture locales, but I have come across so many cool spots over the years with no celebrity connection (like Lula Mae, one of my favorite places in the world) that I wanted to feature, but didn’t feel like I could.  Because I get countless emails from fellow stalkers asking for restaurant/hotel/things-to-do recommendations on an almost daily basis, though, I figured it was time that I started.  Today’s post is about one of those types of spots.  And while Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch is located in Redlands and, therefore, a bit out of the way, it is worth every minute of the drive.  If you live in the area or are visiting L.A. during the month of October, you should definitely make the trip!

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Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch was originally founded in 1980 by a man named Gregg Palmer.  Back in the 1950s, Gregg’s grandfather, Lowell S. Palmer, was driving towards Los Angeles from the Palm Springs area and during the journey happened to turn his head to watch cattle grazing in a pasture near the freeway.  Fate intervened when the wind blew Lowell’s hat off and into the pasture.  He pulled over to recover it and, while doing so, struck up a conversation with the landowner and wound up purchasing the 450-acre site that same day.  Lowell named his new farm Live Oak Canyon Ranch.

In 1980, Gregg decided to plant Christmas trees, pumpkins and gourds in a 45-acre section of the property that was then vacant.  The Live Oak Canyon Christmas Tree Farm started selling trees in 1983.  A few years later, the Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch, or The Pumpkin Patch, as it is also known, opened on the site.  It has been going strong ever since.

The Grim Cheaper and I discovered the location last year while driving back to Pasadena from my parents’ house in the desert thanks to a huge pumpkin displayed on a mountaintop overlooking the freeway.  I was immediately in awe of the patch due to its size and the fact that we could actually cut the pumpkins off the vine ourselves.  I had never known places like that even existed!  We ended up spending about five hours at the patch that day and this year Live Oak Canyon was at the top of my list of Halloween-related locales to visit.

Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch, where one can easily spend an entire day, boasts an amazeballs gift shop filled with all sorts of Halloween paraphernalia (none of which the GC would let me buy ), a picnic area, a snack tent, pony rides, a petting zoo, a quad race, a hay castle, several bounce houses, slides, games, an aviary, a huge food court with over a dozen specialty vendors, live entertainment, a tractor-pulled hayride, acres and acres of sunflowers, and a corn maze.

This year, the GC and I decided to buy tickets for said corn maze, which I mistakenly thought would be a snap to get through.

The labyrinth, which is comprised of 12,000 feet of twists, turns and dead-ends, wound up taking us a good two hours to complete and was beyond challenging – and beyond fun!

The two-part maze works as follows – upon entering, one is given a card with sketchings of eight different “Photo Op” spots that can be found hidden inside the cornfield, four in each section.

Each Photo Op spot has a corresponding number on it that is part of two different four-digit codes.

One code is required to unlock the lockbox on the doors leading from Part I to Part II of the maze and the second code is needed to exit the door located at the very end of the challenge.  As you can see we had a blast – and got our exercise for the day.  I seriously wish I had been wearing my pedometer because I think we walked over ten miles getting through that thing!  The patch also offers a special nighttime corn maze for those who are so inclined to complete in the dark.  Yeah, no thank you. 

After the maze, the GC and I headed over to the U-Pick pumpkin patch.

The 12-acre area features over 15 different varieties of orange pumpkins and over 15 specialty pumpkin varieties . . .

. . . all of which you actually pull of the vine yourself!  I mean, how incredibly cool is that?  LOVE IT!

Pictured below is the pumpkin the GC and I picked.  I adore the stem!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch is located at 32335 Live Oak Canyon Road in Redlands.  You can visit the patch’s official website here.  The property is open 7 days a week through November 2nd.  Admission on weekends is $2 per person and weekdays are free.