The cheapest pumpkin outing on the Panhandle coast — free activities, pumpkins from 50 cents and a $4 honor-system park donation — provided you remember that the whole thing runs on cash.
Pumpkin patch activities are free; pumpkins priced individually, starting as low as 50 cents. Park entry is an honor-system donation of $4 per vehicle or $1 per pedestrian. Bring cash.
Free to walk in. Your spend here is whatever you choose — pumpkins, food, and any paid activities. That makes it a low-risk stop if you are not sure how long the kids will last.
This is a different kind of listing from most of the Panhandle. Camp Helen’s pumpkin patch is run by the park’s friends group as a fundraiser rather than by a farm as a business, and it shows in every direction — over a thousand pumpkins laid out for photos, activities that cost nothing, and pumpkins priced from 50 cents. Nobody is trying to extract $19 a head from you here.
That makes it the obvious choice for two groups. The first is anyone on a tight budget: a car of four gets in for a $4 donation and can leave with pumpkins for pocket change. The second is parents of very small children, for whom the entire risk calculation of a pumpkin outing changes when the visit is free. A twenty-minute stop that ends in a tantrum has cost you nothing.
The organisers say it plainly, and it is worth repeating because it is the way visitors get caught out: this runs on cash. Park entry is an honor-system donation collected at the entrance — $4 per vehicle, $1 per pedestrian — and the pumpkin sales are set up the same way. Turning up with only a card is the one mistake that turns a cheap morning into a drive home empty-handed.
A pumpkin display and photo setup, a native plant sale, and on Saturdays between 11am and 3pm a scavenger hunt, games and glitter tattoos, with a food truck on weekends. That is the whole offer. There is no corn maze, no hayride, no petting zoo. If you arrive expecting the kind of festival the inland farms run, you will be underwhelmed within ten minutes — but nobody is charging you as though it were one.
The pumpkins, as at every Florida patch, were trucked in. Florida cannot grow a commercial fall pumpkin crop, and a state park on the coast is not attempting to. What you are getting is a well-arranged display in an attractive setting, which is exactly what most families photograph anyway.
The daily 9am-to-4pm October schedule is a real advantage over the weekend-only farms — you can go on a Tuesday and have the place largely to yourself. Mornings are strongly preferable regardless of day. Bay County in October still delivers hot, bright afternoons and the reliable thunderstorm window, and there is not much shade to be had around a pumpkin display.
One caveat on the calendar: the patch has historically run through October, but exact 2026 opening and closing dates were not confirmed when we checked in August. It is a short drive for most Panama City Beach visitors, but if you are coming from further afield, confirm first.
A weekday morning if you want quiet, a Saturday between 11am and 3pm if you want the extras. The patch itself is open daily 9am to 4pm through October, but the scavenger hunt, games and glitter tattoos are Saturday-only, and the food truck runs weekends. Mornings are the sane choice either way: Bay County stays hot into October and the afternoon storm pattern holds.
Under an hour for the patch alone. Half a day if you treat it as a state park visit with a pumpkin patch attached, which is the better way to use the trip.
A daily October schedule spreads demand far better than the weekend-only farms, so weekdays should be genuinely quiet. Saturdays between 11am and 3pm are when the activities run and when everyone else turns up.
State park parking rather than a farm field, which makes this one of the more rain-proof options on this list. Park entry is collected by honor-system donation at the entrance.
Not documented for the patch specifically. State parks generally do better than farms on firm surfaces and restrooms, but we cannot confirm details here — worth checking with the park if step-free access matters to your group.
You want rides, mazes, hayrides or a full festival day. There are none here — this is a pumpkin display, a photo backdrop and some Saturday activities run by a park support group, not an agritourism operation. Paid farms further inland are where the attractions are.
It sits on Panama City Beach Parkway, so it slots easily into a beach day rather than being a destination in its own right — do the patch in the cool of the morning and the coast afterwards.
The patch activities are free. Park entry is an honor-system donation of $4 per vehicle or $1 per pedestrian, and pumpkins are priced individually starting as low as 50 cents.
Yes, and it is the detail most likely to trip you up. The honor-system park entry and the pumpkin sales both expect cash — do not assume a card reader will be waiting.
Daily, 9am to 4pm, through October, with family activities on Saturdays from 11am to 3pm. Exact 2026 opening and closing dates had not been confirmed when we last checked.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Daily through October; family activity days on Saturdays. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission is free. Pumpkin patch activities are free; pumpkins priced individually, starting as low as 50 cents. Park entry is an honor-system donation of $4 per vehicle or $1 per pedestrian. Bring cash.
23937 Panama City Beach Parkway, Panama City Beach, FL 32413, in Bay County. It is one of 14 patches we track in Panhandle.
We track 14 patches in Panhandle, 9 of which are free to walk into. Entry here costs nothing, which puts it in the minority even in a region with several free options.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 2 of the 14 patches we track in Panhandle had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
friendsofcamphelen.org
Checked August 2026.