Sensing slight hints of a new season growing near from the city, we found ourselves wanting to explore a new place in Arizona to immerse ourselves into the fall vibes. We see on the calendar we are in the middle of October but yet, where is the nicer weather to go along with it? Here in Phoenix, we are only able to recently say our temperatures are now below the 100's and we are feeling a little impatient to experience the cooler days that lie ahead. So, we headed North for the day to get a little taste of the weather that is soon to come.
Technically just over an hour North from Phoenix, there is a town called Dewey, Arizona. Within the town, there is a place called Mortimer Farms and during this time of year they have their annual Pumpkin Fest and Corn Maze in full effect. As for us, our timing felt the traffic, which made the trip take much longer both ways. However, despite this fact, we still had a fantastic day. After having a nice breakfast at home, we head out at around 8 A.M. skeptical, yet hopeful to find out if this so-called "fall" is actually going on around us or not.
We make the journey up the I-17, then onto Highway 69, moving as quick as the other vehicles would let us. When finally at around the time of 9:45 A.M, we find ourselves eyes wide, staring at the beautiful acreage of Mortimer Farms. At this time, the place was starting to get a steady flow of visitors coming in, but we are able to find a place to park fairly quick. We headed in, very excited to experience this place to it's fullest extent possible.
The temp was in the mid-80's during the time our visit, with a slight breeze. This was such an upgrade for us compared to what we have been used to. Despite the coolness in the day, the sun was still beating down on us without many clouds in sight, as though to remind us that we are still in Arizona. Upon getting out of the vehicle, I was quite immediately struck with a sense of happiness to have remembered a hat.
We realized right away that there was definitely a lot of fun to be had here, especially if you were bringing children along. For us, without children, still had ourselves a great time. We started out with getting ourselves some waters and other drinks to keep on hand while we explored the map, gaining a sense of all that there was to do. They had a great variety of seasonal beers, mixed drinks, and non-alcoholic options too.
Nearby, they had a cute array of farm animals to admire, pet and feed which is where we stopped for a moment while I took some pictures and talked sweet to the goats - who also seemed to enjoy me being there.
Happily trotting onward, we browsed through all that the vendors had to offer. Almost immediately, we come across some handmade jewelry at a pop-up tent from local vendor. With a combination of the way they were sparkling in the sunlight, shimmering at me as if they were calling my name, not to mention the fact that I love to support a good local small business when I can, how could I resist? I picked up a few small pieces of jewelry and we took our time, continuing on.
Mortimer Farms has many fruits and vegetables growing year round, so we were able to walk through the garden paths, admiring what they had growing in their smaller garden area. They even have flowers blooming at this time, which were beautiful. I imagined that this place has a lot of beauty with each of its' seasons, offering different scenery and colors depending on when you come to visit. When the sunflowers are in season, I will be sure to come back to experience the sights but for now, they have other flowers in bloom which I believed were Garden Cosmos.
Soon after, we found the line for their Hay Ride and Farm Tour. While we were waiting in line, we talked with one of the workers there who told us a story of something she experienced the previous week. She spoke of having overheard a little girl who ran up to her mother to say that this was the first day in a long time that she felt "normal". After hearing that story, I stopped for a minute to breathe in and appreciate the surroundings a little bit more, while I thought to myself I might have partially felt the same as that little girl, in that moment. It is such a precious gift these days to experience for a single day or a few hours of normalcy in this new world we live in. Hopefully it is sooner rather than later that the world will be able to experience more of these days, with people feeling happy, healthy, and normal again. Being humbled by this, we step onto the hay ride which showed us the full extent of their farm.
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Stepping off the tour, we found it to be perfect timing to have some lunch and take a break for a little. We picked up some pulled pork sandwiches from one of the food trucks there and sat down to enjoy. After, we found a crepe vendor and shared a taste of that too.
Next on the agenda was the corn maze where we could choose between the easy maze and the difficult maze. Feeling confident, full and ambitious, we rolled ourselves into the difficult maze.
Having never been in a corn maze, I felt the excitement within me start to grow as we dived deeper into the maze. With all the twists and arguably some turns that were not actually apart of the path, we found ourselves adequately lost but happily welcomed the possibility.
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A few parts were muddy, and there were a few times in between that caused me to question my choice in shoes but we were able to get to solid ground quick enough. We found ourselves without rules in this maze of maize, taking on whatever road or non-road seemed viable, swimming in a sea of corn. Before we knew which was was up, we finally busted through. However, to our surprise, instead of finding ourselves out of the maze, we actually landed ourselves into the "easy maze" maze. Having inadvertently gone through both mazes and being completely tickled with ourselves, we casually scampered out through the entrance.
The next stop would be the picking of our own pumpkins so we continued on to their pumpkin field.
A lot of good picks to choose from but I had an idea of what I wanted which was a smaller one and more of a medium one. It felt like going on a perfect pumpkin scavenger hunt. My smaller one I found hidden among the vines, warty and beautiful.
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The other one I picked out was smooth, medium in size and I thought it to be a bit more orange than the other pumpkins
The two of them together will make a perfect pair in my house.
To pay for these pumpkins, you go into a little store, which has other fresh vegetables, canned goods, meats and more! We found a few goodies to bring home inside as well.
- Bear Jam
- Traffic Jam (not pictured)
- Chile Relleno Salsa
Though, there were many more activities to do with kids, we felt we did all that could be done as adults enjoying this place. We were glad to have been able to get some things that we can continue to enjoy a home for a while and very excited to be able to try these flavors soon.
On our way back to the car, I looked at my watch to see that not only did we get 4 hours of fun out of the day, we had also walked 10k steps while doing it. With a bit of energy left in us, we decided to head to a place that was much less populated.
Heading down a few dirt roads to get there, we arrived at Big Bug Creek. We pulled out our folding chairs, snacks and drinks and hiked a bit of ways. Having seen evidence of water once streaming here as we walked, we figured that the creek had dried up in this particular area and we continued until we found a shady area to set up at. After chilling for a bit and hearing some wildlife, we wanted to explore the area a bit more. Walking out a bit further, we found ourselves overcome with joy to find that not all of the water had actually dried up and in fact there was a creek adequately flowing before us.
We took in our new surroundings for a while and went back to our established area to relax a bit more. Before we knew it, it was about 5 P.M. when we decided it was time to head home.
The ride home was slow and took much longer compared to getting there, having arrived back at around 7:30 P.M. (Remember, it should have only taken a little over an hour both ways) Despite this fact, we got home safely and in one piece - including the pumpkins. They are still doing well and I have put it on my list to paint or carve the medium one very soon, which I am quite excited for.
So that's my story and I hope you enjoyed. If you find yourself up for it, please visit my online store. I've got some new, cute things on there - All things designed by me and I am constantly growing it with new product. Free shipping on orders over $35. Click Here.
Until next time,
AZ Paintbrush