1. Halloween Pumpkin Fest
City: Aurora, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 678-2455
Address: 14601 Arndt Rd.
Description: Fir Point Farms is a real, working farm producing flowers and nursery stock, pumpkins, hay, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. It is also a roadside fruit and vegetable stand where you can buy locally grown produce and flowers. They have an excellent selection of locally made baked goods (like strawberry-rhubarb pie), dried fruits, mustards, jams and jellies, and fruit butters, and other country merchandise. A couple of times a year, the owners attract good crowds of city dwellers, visitors, and locals for a series of holiday event At Halloween, Fir Point Farms hosts a hay maze and wagon rides. The grounds are filled with carved and decorated pumpkins, and there are pony rides, face painting, and entertainments for children, as well as a giant pumpkin weigh-off.Rabbits, chickens, and turkeys are on hand for petting and watching, and the farm’s goats climb a series of ramps and tree branches to get an aerial perch on the activities. For a quarter you can buy a handful of goat food and winch it up to a platform where the goats are waiting for their reward. No admission is charged, although there are small fees for rides. The farm is a few minutes off I-5 at the Aurora/Canby exit, and there are lots of signs pointing you in the right direction.
2. Langdon Farms Golf Club
City: Aurora, OR
Category: Golf
Telephone: (503) 678-4653
Address: 24377 Northeast Airport Rd.
Description: Just off I-5 about 20 minutes south of Portland, Langdon Farms is popular with Portland golfers. This par-71, 18-hole course laid out over 6,935 yards is notable for its unusual contoured terrain. There are few shade trees, so golfers should wear a hat and apply sunscreen when playing on a hot or sunny day. Lessons are available as well as a driving range. Greens fees include cart rental. Rates vary widely—prime-time summer fees are at the high end, but afternoon rates throughout the year offer good value. Several special rates are available at Langdon, among them the one for early birds. Tee times book up quickly—you may need to wait a few weeks. The clubhouse resembles a turn-of-the-20th-century farmhouse, reminding golfers that they’re playing in some of the most fertile farmland in the nation.
3. Fir Point Farms
City: Aurora, OR
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (503) 678-2455
Address: 14601 Arndt Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: About a half an hour’s drive from downtown Portland, Fir Point Farms offers flowers, fresh produce, tours (by reservation), a deli, gift shop, and Tillamook ice cream. In the fall, Fir Point Farms is the host to swarms of pumpkin-picking schoolchildren, and weekends in Oct feel more like a farm exhibit in Central Park than a farm in Oregon, but between the excellent homemade doughnuts and the hay-wagon rides, it’s not easy to resist the charm of Fir Point Farms, even with the crowds. A big, slippery slide that dumps you into a pile of hay is a popular entertainment. Other allurements include a spooky hay maze, pony rides, and the chickens, turkeys, cows, horses, and goats. You can feed most of the animals, and the owners have capitalized on the attraction of this activity for city folks by charging 25 cents for a handful of chow. The greedy goats are the most fun to watch as they storm unwary visitors. In addition to their large, wooded pen, the goats have a tree house for their amusement, where they scamper along platforms 12 feet in the air, peering down at gawking parents and children. You can send food up to the goats by means of buckets on pulleys. That alone is worth the trip. Fir Point Farms is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Fall weekends have the most activities. There is no charge for admission, but rides and games will cost you a small amount.