Gilly's Pumpkin Patch: Eight Days a Year on a Castle Rock Homestead

Heads up: if you're going to go to Gilly's, you have to go now.

They're only open eight days in the fall. Fridays and Saturdays only, four weekends: September 25 and 26, October 2 and 3, October 9 and 10, and October 16 and 17. This is one you're not going to want to miss.

It's super convenient from Castle Rock and the rest of Douglas County, too. From I-25, take the Plum Creek Parkway exit and head east past the Douglas County Fairgrounds, take the first right at the roundabout onto Lake Gulch Road, and follow it southeast. Gilly's is on the right about a mile and a half down, almost at Crystal Valley Parkway. The patch sits on one of Castle Rock's original homesteads, built in 1889.

We went first thing, 10am on Saturday, September 26. There were a few people there before us, and it really started to fill in around 11. Checkout was easy: $5 a person or $20 for a family, and kids 3 and under get in free.

I'd never been before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but it was significantly larger than I was anticipating, with way more activities than even their website describes.

What's out there at Gilly's

Once you're through the entrance, there's a wagon corral lined with wagons and a sign listing the main activities.

Photo stations. Trucks, pumpkins and hay bales, at least three setups: one right up front and two over to the left.

There's also an old motorbike parked in front of the Gilly's banner if you want to put your kid on it for a picture.

The animals. We hung out with the sheep first (there were two when we got there), then the two bunnies. Bunny food is 25 cents, and I think they'll give you quarters if you ask over at Faye's Face Paint, which we skipped but a lot of kids were loving. There are ducks, a box of baby chicks, and a pen of chickens you can go say hi to. Watch out for the beaks.

Corinne's Corn Pit. A bunch of kids were in there throwing corn at one another.

Axe throwing. They're not real axes, and it's tougher than I thought it would be. I sent mine flying over the target. A couple of kids got theirs to stick.

Pumpkin checkers. Regular checkers is black and red. Theirs is green pumpkins against orange ones.

Marie's Maze. A little tougher than I was expecting. We eventually made it through. I saw a couple of people quit.

The ball toss. Their take on skee ball: you toss the balls at a homemade contraption instead of rolling them. A lot of fun. One heads-up: stay close to your kids there, because the little ones run right up to throw while bigger kids are tossing from further back.

Everything else. An obstacle course, a massive slide (it looked like the kids were having a lot of fun there too), Clara's Kiddie Corral, The Troo-Troo Train, Gilly's Playground, and an archway built out of pumpkin crates.

The Gilly's store

Once you're through, there's a Gilly's store with jams and baked goods. We grabbed a pumpkin spice sourdough scone from Simply Sourdough. They also have caramel apples that are supposedly really good. We got the cinnamon one, which I've yet to try, but it looked amazing. So did the Oreo one, but we limited ourselves to one this time.

The menu boards when we were there: caramel apples $12, a pumpkin spice cookie $4, hot apple cider $4.50, popcorn $3.50, cotton candy $7, homemade pumpkin chili $10 and freeze-dried Skittles $7.

Overall, an awesome fall day if you need a little outing.

If you go

Gilly's Pumpkin Patch, 1433 Lake Gulch Road, Castle Rock, CO 80104.
2026 dates: Fridays and Saturdays only, September 25–26, October 2–3, October 9–10 and October 16–17.
Hours: 9am until dark (opening moved up from 10am for the final two weekends).
Cost: $5 per person, $20 per family, kids 3 and under free. Tickets through Gilly's TicketsCandy page.
Timing: we went at the 10am opening and it filled in around 11.
Full details, photos and map: Gilly's Pumpkin Patch on the DougCo Directory. Season listing: Gilly's Pumpkin Patch 2026.

Make a day of it

Heading back toward I-25 on Plum Creek, stop at LaLa's Coffee & Boba for a coffee on the way in or out. Downtown, Great Divide Brewery & Roadhouse on Wilcox opens at 9am Saturdays if you want brunch, and you can spend some time at Festival Park. Or head west on Crystal Valley Parkway to Oo•de•Lally Coffee, which is what we did. I got an iced cinnamon roll drink off their fall menu and someone else got the pumpkin snickerdoodle. The fall menu also had brown sugar cinnamon, a frozen maple donut drink and a gluten-free blueberry lemon muffin.

More for the season: every patch compared in our Pumpkin Patches guide, the rest of fall in the Fall Events guide, trick-or-treat and haunts in the Halloween guide, and year-round ideas in Things to Do With Kids. Or see what's on this weekend.