Shepherd’s Cross Pumpkin Festival:

A beautiful autumn destination.

Finally, fall is here to stay. With fall comes pumpkin patch season. The past two years we have gone to the same place, so this year the girls and I decided to try out a pumpkin patch that is new to us. Shepherd’s Cross Pumpkin Festival is located in Claremore. One of the girls’ sweet friends and her family  joined us for this adventure. The drive from Tulsa to Claremore is simple. My kids love how we started to spot animals quickly. Tulsa may not be a huge city, but my kids love the beauty just outside of the city. The clouds even decided to put on a beautiful show of shapes for us to guess to help our drive go by.

Shepherd’s Cross prides itself on being a family friendly destination. As soon as you arrive, you see the beauty of fall. There is no fee to enter the property. They request that you make a donation, but that is entirely up to you. We were greeted by the friendly staff, who provided a brochure that had a detailed map of the layout of the property. The girls loved to look at it and act like they knew where we should go next. For the most part they guessed accurately.

We chose to spend the first part running in between the pumpkins and playing the games. I love old-fashioned games. The girls seemed to make it another game to see how fast they could run from each game to the next. Next to the game area is a hay maze. It is not too big, so the girls were fine just running back and forth. They are just the right height that they felt like they were well hidden at any spot in the maze.

There are a few choices you can choose from if you are interested in purchasing a Pumpkin Fest Package. We chose the Mini Pumpkin Package. For $7 you get one mini pumpkin, wagon ride and scarecrow-making kit. Making the tiny scarecrows in the silo held their attention longer than I would have imagined. When you enter the silo it is as if you have stepped back in time. The first floor is the store and restrooms. There are items filled from the working farm and treats from other local vendors. Then you can take the stairs up the silo to the 2nd floor, which has a series of activities for kids. There was a cute matching game that we played for awhile. The girls have never been around things like this before. It is not like the modern pumpkin patches. But they still enjoyed color, asking questions and making memories.

Outside there are a few animals you can pet as well. The favorite part for our family was just being out in the country and running through the pumpkin lane. There are so many fall activities in and around Tulsa in the fall. It was fun to go and explore Shepherd’s Cross Pumpkin Festival.