A decorated pumpkin display inside a 143-acre botanical park rather than a farm, folded into regular garden admission at $10 for adults and $5 for children, which makes it the cheapest good fall photo stop west of Fort Worth - but the garden had not posted its own fall dates or hours when we checked.
Garden admission $10 adults, $8 seniors 65+, $5 children 4-12, free for 3 and under. The DFW Child 2026 guide lists the pumpkin patch at the same $10/$5 rates, i.e. the patch is included with garden admission rather than separately ticketed. Pumpkins themselves are extra.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $20.00 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.
Be clear about what this is before you decide whether to drive out. Clark Gardens is a 143-acre botanical park - lakes, waterfalls, walking paths, a model train exhibit - that puts a pumpkin display in it for a month each autumn. The pumpkins are trucked in and arranged, not grown in a field on the property, and the venue does not pretend otherwise.
That is not a criticism. Most pumpkin patches in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro are display patches whether or not they say so; this one just happens to sit inside something genuinely worth walking around. What you are buying is an hour and a half in a well-kept garden with a good photo setup in it, for less than most farms charge to park.
Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors 65 and over, $5 for children 4 to 12, and nothing for children 3 and under. The pumpkin patch is included in that rather than added on top. Two adults and two school-age children come to $30.
Set that against the alternatives in the region. A ticketed North Texas farm festival will run the same family $50 at the cheap end and past $150 if bought at the gate at the expensive one. If what you actually want is fall photographs and a pleasant walk - and for a lot of families it is, however the trip gets described in advance - this is the version of that day that costs $30.
The honest caveat is that you get what you pay for in attractions. There are no hayrides, no corn maze, no animals, no rides. If a child has been promised a farm, this is not one, and $30 spent on the wrong expectation is worse value than $60 spent on the right one.
The garden’s published pattern opens at 8am Monday to Saturday. Assuming that carries into the fall season - and see below, because that assumption is doing some work - it is the most useful fact on this page.
In October in Parker County, the difference between 8am and 1pm is the difference between soft light and a flat glare, and between a comfortable walk and a hot one. Families booking portrait sessions already know this; families turning up with a phone camera generally do not, and arrive at eleven when everyone else does. The early slot costs nothing extra and improves both the photographs and the temperature.
Sunday opens at 10am, which removes the best hours entirely, so a weekday or a Saturday is the better choice if the pictures are the point.
Here is the part to take seriously. When we read the garden’s own website in late August 2026, it had not posted fall hours and had no pumpkin-patch page at all. The hours it listed were for its March 1 to July 5 season. The October 2 to November 3 dates and the fall hours pattern come from a regional 2026 guide, not from Clark Gardens.
For a venue 25 miles west of Fort Worth, that is enough uncertainty to warrant a phone call. Ring 940-682-4856 and confirm two things: that the patch is running on the day you want, and what time the gates actually open. Both are one-minute questions and both would otherwise be discovered in the car park.
The model train exhibit is the other thing worth mentioning in advance, because it consistently outlasts the pumpkins as an attraction for anyone under about seven. If you are budgeting time, budget it there rather than at the patch.
A regional 2026 guide gives the pumpkin patch as October 2 through November 3, with the garden's published pattern of Monday to Saturday 8am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm. Those weekday hours are the whole argument for coming early: an 8am arrival in October gets you low, warm light across the gardens before the sun goes hard, before the day heats up, and before the photo traffic builds. If the point of the trip is family pictures, be there when the gates open. If the point is a walk, late afternoon toward the 5pm close is the other good slot.
Ninety minutes to two hours. The pumpkins themselves are a fifteen-minute stop; the gardens, the water features and the model train exhibit are what fill the rest, and they are the better part of the visit.
A month-long window at a venue that is open daily and large enough to absorb visitors. October weekend late mornings are when the photo sessions cluster; weekday mornings should be genuinely calm. The 143-acre scale means crowding is a problem at the patch itself rather than across the property.
Not published. A botanical park of this size will have a designated lot rather than field parking, but we cannot confirm the surface, and we are not going to guess.
Not detailed in what we could see, though a botanical park with walking paths is generally a better prospect for wheelchairs and strollers than a working farm with hay bales and uneven ground. Call 940-682-4856 to confirm which paths are surfaced before you drive out.
You want hayrides, a corn maze, animals or anything a child would call a ride. None of that is here. This is a botanical park with pumpkins arranged in it, and a family expecting a farm festival will feel short-changed regardless of how little they paid.
Weatherford is about 25 miles west of Fort Worth off I-20, close enough that the gardens work as the front half of a day with lunch in town rather than as a standalone expedition.
It is covered by regular garden admission: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors 65 and over, $5 for children 4 to 12, and free for 3 and under. A 2026 regional guide lists the pumpkin patch at those same rates, which indicates the patch is included rather than separately ticketed. Pumpkins themselves cost extra.
No. This is a botanical park, not a working farm, and the pumpkins are a decorated display arranged for visitors and photographs. That is worth knowing before you arrive expecting a field.
A regional 2026 guide gives October 2 to November 3. Clark Gardens itself had not posted fall 2026 hours or a pumpkin-patch page when we checked in late August, so confirm the dates by phone on 940-682-4856 before making the drive.
The model train exhibit is the reliable one, along with the waterfalls and lakes on the walking paths. There are no rides, no animals and no maze.
October 2 – November 3, 2026. Daily. Hours: Monday-Saturday 8am-5pm, Sunday 10am-5pm (these are the hours the garden publishes for its March-July season; fall 2026 hours had not been posted as of late August 2026, and the DFW Child guide lists the same 8am-5pm / 10am-5pm pattern for the pumpkin patch).
Admission starts at $5 per person. Garden admission $10 adults, $8 seniors 65+, $5 children 4-12, free for 3 and under. The DFW Child 2026 guide lists the pumpkin patch at the same $10/$5 rates, i.e. the patch is included with garden admission rather than separately ticketed. Pumpkins themselves are extra.
567 Maddux Road, Weatherford, TX 76088, in Parker County. It is one of 6 patches we track in Dallas-Fort Worth.
We track 6 patches in Dallas-Fort Worth. At $5 a head this one sits below the regional median of $12, undercutting 4 of the 5 paid patches we track here.
Its season runs about 33 days against a regional average of 46, so it is a shorter window than most of its neighbours — miss it and the nearest alternatives will still be open.
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
clarkgardens.org
Checked August 2026.