A pay-once, play-all-day children's zoo and pumpkin patch where weekday pricing holds flat at $18.95 across the whole season while October weekends jump to $26.95 — and where the most common mistake is driving to the wrong Johansen Farms site.
2026 general admission: September weekdays $18.95, September weekends $23.95; October weekdays $18.95, October weekends $26.95; Columbus Day (Oct 13) $26.95. Seniors 62+ $15.95 weekdays, $20.95 September weekends, $23.95 October weekends. Children 23 months and younger always free. Active and veteran military free with ID. Parking and pumpkin patch access are free, and admission covers all animals, available rides and scheduled activities.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $63.80 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.
Start with the thing that ruins the morning: there are two Johansen Farms sites in Bolingbrook. The fall festival, the animals and the pumpkin patch are at the Children’s Zoo and Pumpkin Patch on West Boughton Road. The Nursery and Garden Center on Bolingbrook Drive is a different address doing a different job. Put the Boughton Road address into the phone before you leave, not the farm’s name.
Weekday admission is $18.95 for the entire season. Not $18.95 in September and something higher in October — the same figure in both months. That is rare, and it changes how you plan: there is no advantage to going early in the season for price reasons, so you can pick your weekday purely on weather and school calendar.
The weekend is where the money moves. September weekends are $23.95, October weekends $26.95, and Columbus Day on October 13 is charged at the weekend rate rather than the weekday one. For two adults and two paying children, an October Saturday is $107.80 against $75.80 for the identical family on the Tuesday after. That $32 buys you nothing except a Saturday and the crowds that come with it — with one real exception, below.
Seniors 62 and over get $3 off every tier, which brings a weekday down to $15.95 and makes a grandparents-and-grandchildren midweek trip one of the better-value fall outings in Will County. Children 23 months and younger are always free, which is marginally more generous than the age-2 threshold some nearby farms use. Active and veteran military are free with ID.
The farm describes a single all-day price covering every animal, every available ride and every scheduled activity. The listed line-up runs to a children’s petting zoo, amusement rides, hay rides, train rides, a corn maze, inflatables, mini golf and free photo spots, plus a fall open market and a piehouse and bakery.
Parking is free and so is walking into the pumpkin patch. That combination matters: if all you want is a pumpkin and a photo, you do not need to buy admission at all, which is a genuinely visitor-friendly policy that not every farm at this price point offers.
What is not covered is what you eat and what you carry out. The piehouse and bakery are a separate spend, and given that it is a piehouse, budget for it honestly rather than pretending you will walk past.
Pony rides run on October weekends only, 11am to 6pm. That is the exception to the go-midweek advice. If a pony ride is the specific thing a five-year-old has been promised, the weekday saving is not available to you, and it is better to know that now than at the gate.
We could not read the daily opening hours. The farm publishes them inside month-by-month calendar pages that did not render as text, so this page cannot tell you what time the gates open or close on your chosen date. That is the one call worth making before you drive — particularly for a late-October visit, where the difference between a 5pm and a 7pm close is the difference between an unhurried afternoon and a rushed one.
By the last week of October, northern Illinois is losing light fast and the ground in any pumpkin field holds the previous week’s rain. Nothing we read describes the parking surface, and most farms of this kind park on grass. Closed shoes for the children, socks in a pocket for the inflatables, and a jacket each even if the middle of the day was warm — the temperature on open ground drops quickly once the sun is low.
September 15 through October 31, 2026. Weekdays are $18.95 in both months, so there is no price reason to go early in the season and every reason to avoid Saturdays and Sundays: October weekends are $26.95 and Columbus Day on October 13 is charged at the weekend rate. Daily opening hours are published only inside calendar pages we could not read, so confirm the time before you set off.
Three to four hours. The ticket covers every animal, ride and scheduled activity, so a short visit leaves value on the table.
Six and a half weeks with a $8 weekend premium tells you where demand sits. October weekends are the peak, and Columbus Day is priced like one. Pony rides run October weekends only, which pulls families into exactly the busiest slots.
Free, per the farm's admission page. Surface not published; assume farm ground.
Not published. A children's zoo with inflatables, mini golf and a corn maze will mix hard and soft surfaces. Call 630-759-8711 if you need detail before travelling.
You are bringing teenagers who want thrill rides or a serious haunt. Nothing in the record points that way. Skip October weekends too if price is the constraint — the same day midweek is $8 a head cheaper.
Bolingbrook sits in the middle of the Will County farm cluster, so if this one is at weekend prices there are alternatives within twenty minutes at both higher and lower gate prices — including free-entry farms in neighbouring DuPage.
For 2026: September weekdays $18.95 and weekends $23.95; October weekdays $18.95 and weekends $26.95; Columbus Day on October 13 is $26.95. Seniors 62 and over pay $15.95 on weekdays, $20.95 on September weekends and $23.95 on October weekends. Children 23 months and under are free, and active and veteran military are free with ID.
The Children's Zoo and Pumpkin Patch at 710 W Boughton Rd in Bolingbrook. The Nursery and Garden Center on Bolingbrook Drive is a separate site and a common wrong turn.
The farm describes it as a pay-once, play-all-day price covering all the animals, the available rides and the scheduled activities. Parking and pumpkin patch access are free on top. Food, pumpkins and market purchases are separate.
October weekends only, 11am to 6pm. If a pony ride is the reason your child is coming, a weekday trip will not deliver it.
September 15 – October 31, 2026.
Admission starts at $15.95 per person. 2026 general admission: September weekdays $18.95, September weekends $23.95; October weekdays $18.95, October weekends $26.95; Columbus Day (Oct 13) $26.95. Seniors 62+ $15.95 weekdays, $20.95 September weekends, $23.95 October weekends. Children 23 months and younger always free. Active and veteran military free with ID. Parking and pumpkin patch access are free, and admission covers all animals, available rides and scheduled activities.
710 W Boughton Rd, Bolingbrook, IL 60440, in Will County. It is one of 9 patches we track in Chicago Suburbs.
We track 9 patches in Chicago Suburbs, 2 of which are free to walk into. At $15.95 a head this one sits right on the regional median of $15.95, undercutting 2 of the 6 paid patches we track here.
Its season runs about 47 days against a regional average of 48, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
What sets it apart locally: it has a market, bakery or taproom, which most Chicago Suburbs patches on our list do not.
There are 3 other patches we track in Will County. All Chicago Suburbs patches →
johansenfarms.com
Checked August 2026.