The Cool family took a drive out to Wheatland to meet up with some other families at the Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm yesterday. While not as eventful as last year’s pumpkin patch outing, Bishop’s is a great experience. The family run attraction has quality pumpkins, plenty of hay (including a hay “bounce house”), a petting zoo, a corn maze and carnival food. But that’s where most patches end–Bishops’s is just getting started.

In addition to pony rides and hay rides, Bishop’s has a train ride and several creative play structures like “Fort ALotaFun” and “Coyote Mountain Mine,” a combination of hillside slides and a stream full of marbles (a neat retro touch) for some pretend gold-panning fun. The train itself is a nice feature–about twice as long a ride as you would expect from a family business like this. In addition to the a la carte pay attractions there is a small bandstand with free music, a few kid-size ghost town buildings, and an empty grain silo you can let the kids walk into and scream their heads off, if you’re looking to go absolutely insane.

Overall Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm is a great experience: a really beautiful location, though quite a drive from town, with great attractions and fun for everybody. The drive is actually pretty nice–once you get past all the housing development signs you hit old Lincoln and then approaching Wheatland you’re out of the flat grasslands and into the Oak-studded hill country.

Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm
off 4th Street in Wheatland, CA
free admission; parking is $8 on weekends and free weekdays