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County Line Orchard

📍 200 S County Line Road, Hobart, IN 46342🗓 Season dates not yet published for 2026🏷 From $3/person

Lake County's biggest fall destination charges only $3 to get in and then prices everything else separately, which makes it cheap for a short visit and expensive for a full one - and it had not published a 2026 opening date when we checked.

County Line Orchard in Hobart, IN

What you get for the price

Included with admission

Pick-your-own applesPick-your-own pumpkinsPick-your-own sunflowersCorn mazePumpkin house photo spotMoo Choo tractor rideKids Farm play areaBee yurtsBakery and farm market

General admission is $3 per person and covers entry to the grounds. Attractions are priced separately: u-pick pumpkins 40 cents per pound capped at $20, u-pick sunflowers $2 each, corn maze $9 with the Explorer Pass, Kids Farm $7 with the Lil' Farmer Pass, Moo Choo ride $3 per rider, and a $15 All Access Pass that bundles the maze, Kids Farm and Moo Choo. U-pick apples are paid by the bag at checkout.

Rough cost for a family of four: about $12.00 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.

Our take

County Line prices differently from almost every other farm in this batch, and understanding the model is worth more than any other advice on this page.

The $3 gate is not the price

Most large fall farms charge one substantial admission and put most attractions inside it. County Line charges $3 to walk through the gate and then sells everything else. The corn maze is $9. The Kids Farm play area is $7. The Moo Choo tractor ride is $3 a rider. An All Access Pass bundles those three for $15. Pumpkins are 40 cents a pound. Sunflowers are $2 a stem. Apples are weighed at checkout.

For a family of four that produces a very wide range of possible bills. The floor is $12 - park, pay the gate, walk the grounds, take pictures at the pumpkin house, leave. That is a legitimate visit and one of the cheapest ways to spend an autumn morning in Lake County.

The ceiling arrives quickly. Four All Access Passes is $60, plus $12 at the gate, is $72 before a pumpkin has been picked. Add four pumpkins and a bag of apples and you are near $110. The model rewards families who decide in the car park and punishes families who decide at each counter.

The pass arithmetic, done properly

Bought separately, the maze, Kids Farm and Moo Choo come to $19. The All Access Pass is $15. So the bundle saves $4 per person - real, but only if all three get used.

That matters because the three attractions do not suit the same child. The corn maze is for children old enough to walk it and not panic; the Kids Farm and the Moo Choo are for the younger end. A four-year-old who will not do the maze is better served by the $7 Lil’ Farmer Pass alone, which is $8 cheaper than the bundle. An eleven-year-old who has no interest in a toddler play area wants the $9 Explorer Pass and nothing more. The bundle is genuinely the right answer for a middle child of about six or seven, and often the wrong answer for everyone else in the same family.

The pumpkin cap is the best deal on the farm

Forty cents a pound with a $20 cap means the cap bites at 50 pounds. Below that you pay by weight - a 12-pound pumpkin is $4.80, which is cheap. Above 50 pounds the extra weight costs nothing, which makes a genuinely enormous pumpkin the single best-value item on the property. If you have ever wanted to carry home something that needs two people to lift it, this is the pricing structure that makes it sensible. Bring something to move it in.

The information problem

We could not find a 2026 season. Four separate pages on the farm’s own site were still displaying an opening-day banner that matches the 2025 calendar, and none published a date range, daily hours or a closing date. Part of the attractions page was password-protected. The prices quoted above come from an admission page whose last update was August 2025.

None of that suggests the orchard is not operating - it is the largest fall destination in the county and plainly still trading. It does mean this is a farm to phone rather than a farm to plan around a webpage. Two questions on that call: what are this year’s dates and hours, and have the pass prices moved.

Timing, and northwest Indiana in fall

The farm’s own recommendation is mid to late September for sunflowers, which is earlier than most people think about a pumpkin trip. That is a real steer worth taking if the cutting garden is part of the appeal, and it has the side benefit of landing before the October weekend rush.

For pumpkins the calculus is the usual one for this part of the state: late September into mid-October is the reliable window, and the season ends when frost does. Hobart sits on flat, open ground not far from Lake Michigan, and an October wind across an orchard there is colder than the number on the forecast. Layers, and a hat for anyone small.

Planning your visit

Best time to go

The orchard had not refreshed its website with a 2026 season window when we checked in late August 2026 - all four pages we read still carried an opening-day banner matching the 2025 calendar - so we cannot give you dates or daily hours. The farm's own published advice is to come mid to late September for the best sunflower selection, which is a useful steer if the sunflowers are part of why you are going. Call 219-947-4477 to confirm the season before driving out.

How long to budget

Ninety minutes if you are picking and leaving. Three to four hours if you are buying the All Access Pass, in which case anything shorter wastes it.

Crowds

This is the biggest fall destination in Lake County, and it sits within easy reach of a very large population on both sides of the state line. October weekends will be busy in a way that a mid-week visit simply is not. If the corn maze is the reason you are going, it is also the attraction that suffers most from a crowd.

Parking

Not published. A farm of this scale will have organised parking, but the surface is unknown and northwest Indiana Octobers are wet, so plan for the possibility of a soft field lot after rain.

What to bring

  • A card and a decided budget - the pass structure is where the money goes here
  • Something sturdy to carry a heavy pumpkin, because the pricing actively rewards picking a big one
  • Closed shoes for the orchard rows, the sunflower beds and the maze
  • Layers for October; a farm this exposed on flat ground near Lake Michigan gets a wind that the forecast temperature does not capture

How to spend less here

  • Do the pass arithmetic before you buy. The All Access Pass at $15 bundles the corn maze ($9), Kids Farm ($7) and the Moo Choo ride ($3) - $19 bought separately - so it saves $4 only if you will use all three
  • If your children are too young for the corn maze, the $7 Lil' Farmer Pass on its own is much better value than the bundle
  • Pick one big pumpkin rather than several small ones. U-pick is 40 cents a pound capped at $20, so anything over 50 pounds costs the same as a 50-pounder
  • A short visit is legitimate here. Gate admission for a family of four is $12, and you are under no obligation to buy a single pass

Who it suits

Good for

  • Families who want to control the spend - the $3 gate means you can do a cheap visit and pay for nothing else
  • Photographers and anyone chasing a good fall picture; the farm flags its pumpkin house as the standout spot
  • Sunflower cutters, if you can get there in the mid-to-late September window the farm itself recommends
  • Northwest Indiana and south Chicagoland households, for whom this is the obvious large fall destination rather than a drive

Skip it if

You want a fixed price for the day. The whole model here is a la carte, and it takes real attention to keep a family visit from drifting. Skip it too if you need certainty on dates - the 2026 calendar was not published as of late August 2026.

Common questions

How much does County Line Orchard cost?

General admission is $3 per person for entry to the grounds. Attractions are priced separately: corn maze $9 with the Explorer Pass, Kids Farm $7 with the Lil' Farmer Pass, Moo Choo ride $3 per rider, or a $15 All Access Pass bundling all three. U-pick pumpkins are 40 cents per pound capped at $20, sunflowers $2 each, and apples are paid by the bag at checkout. These are the farm's most recently published rates - its admission page was last updated in August 2025 - so treat them as the latest known figures rather than confirmed 2026 prices.

When does County Line Orchard open in 2026?

Unknown. Every page we read in August 2026 still carried an opening-day banner matching the 2025 calendar, and no 2026 season window, daily hours or closing date had been posted. Call 219-947-4477.

What is the best deal on pumpkins?

U-pick pumpkins are 40 cents per pound with a $20 cap. That cap is reached at 50 pounds, so a single very large pumpkin is the best value on the farm - anything heavier is effectively free.

When are the sunflowers best?

The farm's own advice is mid to late September for the best selection. They are $2 each to cut.

When is County Line Orchard open in 2026?

2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. Check with the farm before driving out.

How much does County Line Orchard cost?

Admission starts at $3 per person. General admission is $3 per person and covers entry to the grounds. Attractions are priced separately: u-pick pumpkins 40 cents per pound capped at $20, u-pick sunflowers $2 each, corn maze $9 with the Explorer Pass, Kids Farm $7 with the Lil' Farmer Pass, Moo Choo ride $3 per rider, and a $15 All Access Pass that bundles the maze, Kids Farm and Moo Choo. U-pick apples are paid by the bag at checkout.

Where is County Line Orchard?

200 S County Line Road, Hobart, IN 46342, in Lake County. It is one of 3 patches we track in Northwest Indiana.

How County Line Orchard compares in Northwest Indiana

We track 3 patches in Northwest Indiana. At $3 a head this one sits below the regional median of $5, undercutting 2 of the 3 paid patches we track here.

What sets it apart locally: it has a market, bakery or taproom, which most Northwest Indiana patches on our list do not.

One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 2 of the 3 patches we track in Northwest Indiana had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.

Other patches near Hobart

There are 6 other patches we track in Lake County. All Northwest Indiana patches →

Quick facts

SeasonSeason dates not yet published for 2026
Days openNot published
HoursNot published
AdmissionFrom $3
CountyLake County
RegionNorthwest Indiana

Sources

countylineorchard.com

Checked August 2026.