WYOBRASKA – Pumpkin Wagons Ho! The race to get the best pumpkin is on as many of the pumpkin patches opened their gates on Sept. 25.

The Engel Farms Patch has been open since Sept. 12, but still has quite a variety of pumpkins ready for picking. Fayth Engel said, “We’ve been running the pumpkin patch for eight to nine years. And it’s been so much fun to run. To see all the pumpkins and just have fun with the pumpkins.” Taylor Engel said, “It’s fun meeting new people that come here.”

The Pumpkin Patch at BE Farms in Bayard opened its gates for the 5^th year. Billy Estes said, “We opened to the public in 2016. This is our fifth year open to the public for you pick operations. This year, we had eight and a half acres, 80 varieties plus.”

One of those varieties include pink pumpkins that they grow in support of cancer patients. “We raise those pink pumpkins in honor of my grandmother who we lost to ovarian cancer, and we donate a portion of that sales back to support Festival of Hope,” said Estes.

The Ellis’ Harvest Home Patch in Lingle always looks forward to opening the gates for the season. “It’s fun to watch the families grow as we’ve done this,” Ellis said. “We’re part of their fall tradition, and we appreciate that.”

The Adams Family Pumpkin Patch in Scottsbluff was excited as the pumpkins brought them a surprise this year. “We have some really big ones this year. And then we have these big white ones that we usually don’t have,” said Ashby Adams.

The larger pumpkins seem to be everywhere. Crews at the patches said that they were seeing some of the largest pumpkins that they’d ever seen. 

In addition to the pumpkin patches, there are other traditional activities for families to participate in including hay bale pyramids, corn mazes, and pumpkin bowling.

Each patch has a Facebook page that lists the hours for each patch as well as future events happening throughout October.