Have a gourd time: McCall's an October destination with Haunted Farm, pumpkin picking and more

McCall’s Pumpkin Patch has grown considerably as an October destination since its inception more than a quarter-century ago.

“When we started, 300 people a day was big. You were like, ‘Wow, we’re knocking it out of the park,’ ” said Kevin McCall, who owns the farm with his wife, Kirsten. “Now we may do that in the first 15 minutes of operation.”

“I think we’ve got more ideas and plans to keep growing. I don’t know where we’ll be in another decade, but we’ll probably be north of where we are now.”

The Pumpkin Patch opened on Sept. 23, and runs until Oct. 29. Its hours are from noon to 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. More than 60 activities can be enjoyed during the daytime hours, including pumpkin picking, a corn maze, pedal cart track, rope course, hayrides, mechanical bull and much more. One new attraction this year is a sound garden, where music is made by tapping or banging on the various artificial flowers and plants in the area. Additionally, a train ride has some different elements from previous years.

“The train now has a tunnel … and then it has an Old West Town that you kind of go through,” McCall said. “So the train ride is significantly better.”

Meanwhile, the Haunted Farm, which includes two scares — a barn and a corn field — often sells out in advance. The Haunted Farm opened Oct. 13, and runs Oct. 20-21 and Oct. 27-28. Timed entry starts at 6:45 p.m. and tickets run $32.99. There is also a nighttime general admission ticket without the haunt for $6.99.

Both haunts have approximately 50 actors apiece working within them, and while the barn stays set up year-round, the corn field requires a little more maintenance.

“When we’re putting up a haunt in a corn maze, you have to plow it, plant it, grow it, water it,” McCall said. “So all that haunted stuff that’s in the corn maze comes out after the season. Usually about the week before we open, there are many man-hours out there setting things back up. The corn maze is definitely the bigger challenge over the haunted barn from that standpoint.”

The pandemic proved to be a blessing in disguise for the haunts, because it forced McCall’s to organize its ticket sales into three separate groups for each day of operation.

“We started a timed ticketing process for the haunt and liked it so well that we’ve continued on with it. It really has helped the overall experience of our haunt,” McCall said. “In the past, when customers got here is when they kind of received a card (for) what time they would go into the haunt. You were here four-plus hours in the old days with a very long wait, and so now with this new timed ticketing, you can show up at your time, enjoy your haunts and leave. It’s really helped us.”

Last year, rainy weather hindered attendance at the farm. The elements are always a concern, but even a down season now is far beyond what initially started out as an opportunity to connect agriculture to the community.

According to McCall, attendance in 2022 was about 70,000 people. Though getting all the attractions up and running is something McCall likens to “setting up a brand-new business every year,” it all proves to be worthwhile at the end of the day.

“(I like) just seeing the smiles and the laughter of families,” he said. “Anything we can do in this day and age to help families kind of put the phones down and reconnect and come out and enjoy the wide open skies and the open air of Moriarty, New Mexico, I think is a plus. That always gives me great joy.

“From time to time I’ll go stand at the exit of the haunts, and just listening to the ‘that was awesome’ comments being made coming out is rewarding in itself.”