Each year around mid October, the Desert Botanical Garden hosts a pumpkin festival on their property. They call it The Great Pumpkin Festival. The event is designed for young children and each child gets to pick out a pumpkin to take home. We took our two year-old daughter to the pumpkin festival this year and she quite enjoyed it. While she was a little bit young for the pumpkin decorating and the music, she had a blast meeting a few animals for the first time. The petting zoo was by far her favorite activity. The animals were well behaved and she got to pet a miniature horse, two pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep.
Admittance to the The Great Pumpkin Festival is for DBG members only, but they have special offers and discounts available if you are interested in just The Great Pumpkin Festival.
The pumpkins are actually held on the far northeastern portion of the property, and to get their one must take a hay ride! This was fun, and they use real hay bales and authentic tractors. Once you’ve arrived at the festival, you’ll hear live bluegrass music and see a huge field of pumpkins (placed there by DBG). The pumpkins all said that they were brought in from New Mexico, by the way.
Our daughter ended up picking out a small pumpkin, and since she’s only two and not to good with a Sharpie, we didn’t bother decorating it there. Maybe next year.
After the festival, we went over to the rest of the garden (only a short distance away by foot) and spent a good 2 hours walking the trails. What a great day, and a fun place to visit.
Desert Botanical Garden
1201 N. Galvin Parkway
Phoenix, AZ 85008
