CALF's Lowell Ranch: Harvest Day on a Working Castle Rock Ranch

After Gilly's and a coffee at Oo•de•Lally, we kept going down the frontage road to Harvest Day at CALF's Lowell Ranch. I'd never been over there before, so this was a first for me.

Full disclosure, I wasn't entirely sure what CALF did before we pulled in. It's the Colorado Agricultural Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit John and Bea Lowell started in 2002 to preserve a piece of rural life in the suburbs and promote agricultural education. Their line is "Connecting All People to Agriculture." The ranch was homesteaded in 1878, and the Lowell family has been on it since 1906.

Harvest Day was Saturday, September 26, from 10am to 2pm. It was a minimum $1 donation per person at the gate, so we made a donation, and parking was free.

What's out there at Harvest Day

The chuckwagon. Right after the free bread and butter (I passed, but apparently it was great with the fancy salt), there's an old chuckwagon with a fire going. A gentleman in a Cold War veteran hat was handing out fresh-pressed apple juice. I didn't have any, but the people around us were really enjoying it.

The hay ride. No hay on it, which is fine. It's a tractor pulling you out to the back of the property, and somebody was riding along in a full cow suit, which was kind of funny. They dropped us off at the big tent.

The vendor tent. A martial arts group, jewelry, a handful of foundations, Douglas Land Conservancy, and Douglas County 4-H, whose own newsletter listed air rifle and archery demos plus a STEM table. Scouts were selling food.

The donkeys. There are two. One was extremely friendly and came right up to be pet. The other, Maria, was a little skittish, did some running around, and wanted nothing to do with us.

The goats. Eating, mostly. One was hiding behind the hay, and another one was trying to eat a lawn chair just outside the pen.

The barn. Up in the barn, a sign thanks 4-H and the Douglas County Fair Foundation for helping build it. That's where the pigs are, with a couple of young kids keeping an eye on them and a barn cat wandering around. Lots of flies in there, but that's a barn.

The chicken house. My favorite part. They turned an old house into a chicken coop and built a little ramp up to a window, and there were a bunch of chickens running around. A rooster came strutting down while we were standing there, and it ended up being the best shot of the day.

By the pond. Live music under the trees, ducks on the water, the Lowell house across the pond, and the food trucks and an ice cream stand close by. It was a really nice little setting to sit for a minute.

The pumpkins. We took the tractor back and checked out CALF's pumpkin patch, where people were picking theirs out. We didn't grab one this time. On the way out, the dairy folks gave the little one a plastic cow.

A couple hundred people came through while we were there, and I'm guessing more earlier in the day.

How to visit CALF this fall

Harvest Day is once a year, but CALF runs Fall Harvest Tours on weekdays in October: 10am to noon or noon to 2pm, both with time for lunch or a snack. You tour the pumpkin patch and pick out a mini pumpkin, visit the livestock, take a hayride if one's available, and make and sample homemade apple butter. It's for ages 2 and up, it needs a group of at least 15, and you have to reserve ahead: 303-688-1026 or [email protected].

Otherwise, the ranch is open by appointment or during CALF's programs and events.

If you go

CALF's Lowell Ranch, 2330 S. I-25 (East Frontage Road), Castle Rock, CO 80104.
Fall Harvest Tours: weekdays in October, 10am to noon or noon to 2pm, reservations required, 15-person minimum.
Booking: 303-688-1026 or [email protected].
Full details, photos and map: CALF's Lowell Ranch on the DougCo Directory. This year's event: Harvest Day at CALF's Lowell Ranch.

Make a day of it

We did Gilly's first thing (here's that visit), grabbed coffee at Oo•de•Lally on Crystal Valley Parkway, then headed down the frontage road to CALF. After that I rolled out to Larkspur for the Douglas County Fall Festival at Sandstone Ranch.

More for the season: every patch compared in our Pumpkin Patches guide, the rest of fall in the Fall Festivals guide, and year-round ideas in Things to Do With Kids.