A visit to Lombardi Ranch Pumpkin Patch, and a look back at the past

[MollyTrolly]

Lombardi Ranch (www.lombardiranch.com) is a Fall and Halloween icon in the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding areas. It is the premier pumpkin patch, with a petting zoo, hay rides, train ride, corn maze and train ride just to name a few of the activities. In addition they have an annual scarecrow contest, with the finalists strewn throughout the sunflower patch. A family can spend hours there on a fall day enjoying the atmosphere.

My daughter first visited Lombardi when she was just 15 days old, and we go as a family annually to pick out our pumpkins and enjoy the rides and events. On Friday 10/19 my daughter took a field trip with school to Lombardi, and who knew then that 48 hours later, it would be a very different place.

We went today to get our pumpkins and even though we knew they had some damage from the Saugus fire, it was a very somber time, seeing so much of the ranch burned.

I scanned in some of my pictures of previous trips. Here is a look back at Lombardi over the past 4 years.

2004








2006


Lombardi Ranch today 10/28/07




The black that follows the roads etc is where they had haybails










Seeing that the fire truck was damaged broke my heart








They still had great pumpkins


And other items


The accessible area of the ranch was maybe 25% of normal and the train was the only thing running


The salvaged what they could of the scarecrow displays and moved them into view behind a fence








I believe they got all the animals our safely and I am not sure exactly what was damaged as far as structures, but I heard the play jail was gone. Everyone there was in wonderful spirits and it was busy. If you are out in the area, its still a fun place, and if nothing else, something to remember for next year.

[SCUBAbe]

I have never been, but a lady at my work goes every year. She said it had burned down and made it sound like it was totally gone. I'm happy to see it is still there and open. Thank you for sharing the pictures.

[pratt55]

This picture really struck me as how fickle fire can be. The mountain side looks all burned but then the sunflowers(?) look so pretty and green. Melted tires on an antique fire truck and then gorgeous pumpkins. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[QuietViolet]

I've never been but that looks like an awesome pumpkin patch. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[penguinsoda]

What wonderful memories, and how great that despite the fire and the damage, they were still able to stay open and start the healing process! Thank goodness it looks like a lot of the ranch was spared, and hopefully even some of the damaged property like the fire truck can be restored! There are so few places like this left in the world, throwbacks to a simplier time in our life.... they need to be protected so our kids can experience the fun of real farm life!

Thanks for sharing all the pictures, past and present!

[Olympicnut]

It just sickens me. I was there the Saturday the weekend prior to the fires, and to see these pictures just breaks my heart. It's been a tradition in the making with me and my proxy family to go there, for the past few years now. I know they'll be back next year, better than ever.

[TikiRoomLiz]

I never knew about this place, but thanks for sharing these pictures with us. It's good that they were able to salvage some of the items from that fire that ran through there.

[Villains Fan]

Thanks for the this report MollyTrolly, I was wondering how the ranch had faired through the fire. It's so sad to see the damage, but on the other hand gratifying to see how much of it was spared. This ranch has been such a huge part of history for this valley and it's community for the past 30 years and hopefully will be around for even more. Ok, that, and they have the best corn around .

[Wren]

Glad to see a lot is still standing. We were close family friends with the Lombardis back in the day. A lot of the halloween backdrops and stuff i helped build as a kid with my dad. Even worked there a few falls and winters in the xmas tree lot when i was a teen. Sad to hear that they lost some stuff up by their house and their guest house too.

[MollyTrolly]

Originally Posted by Wren

Glad to see a lot is still standing. We were close family friends with the Lombardis back in the day. A lot of the halloween backdrops and stuff i helped build as a kid with my dad. Even worked there a few falls and winters in the xmas tree lot when i was a teen. Sad to hear that they lost some stuff up by their house and their guest house too.

Yes I heard there was a home structure that was lost...maybe one of the daughters lived there, I don't remember what I read on it.

It's sad that this is really their big busy season and they had to close for 5 days to clean up a bit. At least they were busy while I was there.

And like VF said, they do have great corn!!!