the mommy avenger

Last night we were able to go explore Cross E Ranch just north of Salt Lake City and participate in their Fall Festival. We had such a wonderful time visiting last year, we knew we wanted to make it one of our first fall stops this year!

This adorable festival is loaded with tons of activities for the entire family, all included with the price of admission. This Fall festival is full of lively activities like hay rides, tractor rides, archery, rock climbing, ropes courses and pig races. In fact, there are over 30 activities to enjoy!

The farm was set up in fun stations for every visitor to explore and enjoy. Pumpkin patches, shops, barrel train, jumping pads (good luck pulling your kids away from these, they will be entertained for hours, jumping to their heart’s content), corn pits, rat rollers, zip lines, and the coolest mega slide, just to name some. There is no shortage of great activities or animals to see to choose from. The youngest of our extended family members had so much fun going from one great activity to the next, it was so perfect for little kids. 

If you’ve never had the joy of watching pig races, let me tell you, I highly recommend it! These cute little piggies were named after Nintendo characters like Princess Peach because this year’s farm theme was all Nintendo related. There is the most adorable pig racing track with stands and hay bales for spectators to come and cheer on their favorite piggies. We learned how they entice them to race and discovered they were rewarded with delicious apple cider donuts when they were done. I totally get why they would run as fast as they could to get that kind of reward!

The older ones in our group opted to go brave the mega corn maze. Three different mazes at varying levels of difficulty are available to choose from–do one or do all. This year’s theme was “Farmtendo”. We chose the hardest maze and, wow, it was pretty challenging! We had a set of clues to look for checkpoints. There are over 3 miles of trails within the corn maze and it’s easy to get turned around, but very fun to explore. We fared much better in this year’s corn maze than last years. We loved exploring the corn filled corridors as the most intense moon was rising and adding perfect lighting and ambiance to our adventures.

After a lot of time traipsing through the corn fields, we definitely worked up an appetite. Lucky for us, Cross E Ranch has plenty of great food options on site to select. The sweet aroma of apple cider donuts were calling us out of the corn maze, though, so we followed the scent to the building where they were making them fresh. You can get cinnamon sugar apple cider donuts or glazed apple cider donuts and enjoy them hot as soon as you buy them. They were the best apple cider donuts I have ever tried! It’s worth a trip for those alone!

We closed the farm out with all of our fun and even enjoyed unwinding at one of the many fire pits set up for patrons. This was a great way to spend an autumn evening with the entire family. Everyone in Utah is invited to come join in the fun from now until October 30th. You can purchase tickets online for a fun family outing or even buy season passes for unlimited trips to enjoy all that Cross E Ranch has to offer anytime! To learn more about the ranch, special events, and to purchase your own tickets, visit them online. You and your family will absolutely love your visit and will want to make it a yearly tradition! 

^{*we were invited to facilitate a feature, all opinions are my own*}