A small private zoo that adds a hayride out to a pumpkin patch in October, cheaper in fall than in its regular season, open weekends only for five hours a day — and strictly cash, no cards of any kind.
October fall pricing is $10 for ages 2-11 and $12 for ages 12 and up, with under 1 free. That covers zoo entry, all petting areas, the hayride through the woods to the pumpkin patch, the play area and the picnic area. Regular-season admission is $13 per person ages 2 and up. Pumpkins from the gift shop start at $4.00 on days too wet for the hayride. The zoo is cash only - no credit or debit cards.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $40.00 in admission alone at the posted starting rate, before pumpkins, food, parking or any add-on listed above. Most families end up well north of that once they are through the gate.
Bear Den is a small private zoo and petting farm that bolts a pumpkin hayride onto its October weekends. It is not a fall festival farm that keeps some animals. The ordering matters, because it tells you what your children will actually spend their time doing: looking at and touching animals, with a wagon ride out to a pumpkin patch as the seasonal extra.
Most attractions charge more in October. This one charges less. Regular-season admission is $13 per person for everyone aged 2 and up. October fall pricing is $10 for ages 2 to 11 and $12 for ages 12 and up, with under-1s free.
For two adults and two primary-age children, that is $44 in fall against $52 in summer, and the fall ticket adds the hayride to the pumpkin patch on top of everything the regular ticket covers — zoo entry, all petting areas, the play area and the picnic area. Whatever else is true about this place, the fall ticket is honest value by the standards of a region where the big farms charge $24 a head at the gate in October.
The one thing to check on arrival is whether the pumpkin itself is included in that price or sold separately. Our record does not say, and it is a fair question to ask at the entrance rather than at the patch.
The zoo states plainly that it accepts no credit or debit cards. Not “cards preferred for larger amounts”, not “card machine sometimes down” — no cards. This is the detail most likely to ruin a visit, because it fails at the gate, after the drive, with children in the car.
Bring more cash than the admission arithmetic suggests. The gift shop sells pumpkins from $4.00, there is food on site including caramel apples with toppings, hot apple cider and hot cocoa, and Indian corn and gourds are for sale. All of that is cash too.
The hayride runs through the woods out to the pumpkin patch, and it is weather permitting. Rain or mud cancels it. When it is cancelled, the zoo sells gift-shop pumpkins from $4.00 instead, which is a reasonable fallback but not the thing you came for.
This is a genuine planning risk in a Wisconsin October, when wet weekends are common and farm ground holds water. The operators’ own advice is to call or check Facebook before driving out — and here is the wrinkle: no phone number appears anywhere on the zoo’s website. Our record lists none. So the practical version of that advice is to check their Facebook page the morning of your visit, and to treat a wet forecast as a reason to reschedule rather than to hope.
Saturdays and Sundays, 11am to 4pm. That is it for the fall. Two days a week, five hours each, and no published start or end date for the 2026 fall season — the zoo’s own site gives only a May-to-October operating year.
The practical consequence is that arriving at 11am is not eager, it is necessary. A 2pm arrival leaves two hours to see the animals, do the petting areas, take the hayride out and back and choose a pumpkin, and that is tight with small children who stop to look at everything. The 11am start also rules out pairing this with a morning somewhere else.
If your child is four and wants to touch a goat, this is a better $10 than any ropes course. If your child is eleven and wants a corn maze and a zipline, it is not — the activity list here is animals, a play area, a hayride and a pumpkin, and it runs out well before a big kid’s attention does. Read the age bracket honestly before you commit the cash, especially since you cannot top up on a card once you are inside.
No 2026 fall start or end date has been published, so we cannot give you a season window. What is published is the shape of the day: Saturdays and Sundays, 11am to 4pm, within a May-to-October operating year. That is a five-hour window on two days a week, so arrive close to 11am rather than drifting in at 2pm. Because the hayride is weather permitting, a dry weekend is worth more here than an early one.
Two to three hours. Animals first, hayride and pumpkins second, and the five-hour window does not leave room for a leisurely arrival.
Two operating days a week and a five-hour window concentrate everyone into a small property. October weekends are the peak. The compensating factor is that this is a zoo rather than a headline fall farm, so it does not draw the metro-wide crowds that the big ticketed operations do.
Not published in our record. The zoo is on Big Bend Road, Highway 164, in Racine County; assume a gravel or grass lot and soft ground after autumn rain, which is also the condition that cancels the hayride.
Not published. The animal exhibits, petting areas and picnic area are likelier to be manageable than the hayride and the pumpkin field, which involve a wagon and open ground. Given there is no published phone number anywhere on the zoo's site, an accessibility question is awkward to ask in advance — that is worth knowing.
You are relying on the hayride. It is weather permitting, and rain or mud cancels it; on those days the zoo sells gift-shop pumpkins from $4.00 instead of taking you to the patch. Skip it too if you cannot get cash — the zoo takes no credit or debit cards at all. And skip it if weekdays are your only free days, because fall operation is Saturdays and Sundays only.
Waterford sits between the Milwaukee and Racine corridors, so Bear Den pairs well with a free-gate pumpkin farm rather than another paid one. Swan's Pumpkin Farm in Franksville is the obvious complement: free entry, a proper pumpkin field and a la carte rides, which covers the parts of a fall day this zoo deliberately does not do.
$10 for ages 2 to 11 and $12 for ages 12 and up, with under-1s free. That covers zoo entry, all petting areas, the hayride through the woods to the pumpkin patch, the play area and the picnic area. Regular-season admission outside fall is $13 per person for ages 2 and up.
No. The zoo states it is cash only and accepts no credit or debit cards. This is the most common visitor surprise here, so plan for it.
The hayride is weather permitting and can be cancelled by rain or mud. On those days the zoo sells pumpkins from its gift shop starting at $4.00 instead of running the ride to the patch. The operators recommend calling or checking Facebook before driving out.
Saturdays and Sundays, 11am to 4pm, within a May-to-October season. No specific 2026 fall start or end dates have been published, so confirm before you go.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Saturdays and Sundays. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission starts at $10 per person. October fall pricing is $10 for ages 2-11 and $12 for ages 12 and up, with under 1 free. That covers zoo entry, all petting areas, the hayride through the woods to the pumpkin patch, the play area and the picnic area. Regular-season admission is $13 per person ages 2 and up. Pumpkins from the gift shop start at $4.00 on days too wet for the hayride. The zoo is cash only - no credit or debit cards.
6831 Big Bend Road (Hwy 164), Waterford, WI 53185, in Racine County. It is one of 7 patches we track in Milwaukee Region.
We track 7 patches in Milwaukee Region, 3 of which are free to walk into. At $10 a head this one sits right on the regional median of $10, undercutting 1 of the 4 paid patches we track here.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 5 of the 7 patches we track in Milwaukee Region had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
There are 2 other patches we track in Racine County. All Milwaukee Region patches →
beardenzoo.com
Checked August 2026.