Morgan Hill's October 24 Weekend Runs on the Harvest Clock

Morgan Hill's two biggest draws of late October fall on the same Saturday, October 24, and neither one is downtown. Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch, at Laguna Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard in north Morgan Hill, is open that day from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Wineries of Santa Clara Valley Fall Passport runs October 24 and 25, with ten wineries pouring for a single $55 ticket.

Both events take place on farmland, and the farms set their schedules. The patch stays open about as long as its corn stalks and flowers look their best. The passport is a harvest-season weekend on a wine trail that runs mostly south of the city line. If you build your Saturday around that, the day gets much easier.

The Patch Closes When the Corn Does

Spina Farms opens its pumpkin patch as early as mid-September and runs it for roughly 45 days. Gary Tognetti told the Morgan Hill Times that the length matches how long the corn stalks and flowers framing the patch stay at their peak. Preparation takes about six weeks, and planting starts in June. Some 350 employees run the season, almost all of them students.

That makes the patch an extension of a large working farm, and it is a small one compared with the rest of the business. It grows 108 pumpkin varieties on 60 acres. The farm itself grows peppers, tomatoes, corn, lettuce and broccoli on 4,000 acres year-round and employs 600 to 800 people in farming, according to the same report. The patch sits on farmland protected by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, which runs a booth on site. "They're for saving farmland," Tognetti told the Morgan Hill Times.

The farm has a long local history. The Spina family opened a small patch in the 1940s off Bailey Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard. Tognetti's family took over in 2019 and later moved the patch to one of its other farms.

What changed this season

The dinosaurs that made the patch famous began with one rusted metal T. rex, bought on a whim from Moon's Nursery. The farm now has 50 to 60 animatronic figures, including Godzilla and King Kong. New for 2026:

• Four dragons
• A second screaming creature, added after long lines formed for the first
• A fourth train
• A second hayride

The trains and hayride were added to shorten lines. Tognetti said the busiest days bring 15,000 to 20,000 people. A recent heat wave kept attendance below last year's, he said. A late-October Saturday is likely to be one of the busy days.

The basics for October 24: parking costs $30, and ticket sales and entry close one hour before the 10 p.m. closing. That makes 9 p.m. the real cutoff. The farm hasn't posted a final day. Counting 45 days from mid-September puts the end near the close of the month, so check the Spina Farms calendar before you assume the patch is open on Halloween.

The Wine Trail Mostly Runs South of Town

The Fall Passport covers ten wineries for $55. Each one pours at least two wines, and some add new releases, harvest activities, food, live music or bottle specials. You need to be 21 or older with photo ID. Each winery gives one passport tasting across the two days. You can start at any participating winery, show your Eventbrite QR code and pick up a passport lanyard. The Eventbrite listing gives the hours as noon to 4 p.m. and names Lion Ranch Vineyards & Winery in San Martin as the event location.

Only one of the ten stops is inside Morgan Hill. Here is where the rest are:

Cooper-Garrod is in the Saratoga foothills, so it doesn't fit on the same afternoon as the South County stops. The passport is good for both days, so it's easier to drive there Sunday than to squeeze it into Saturday. The organizer said weekend hours and each winery's special offerings would be posted before the event, so check santaclarawines.com/fall-passport the morning you go.

The newest stop on the list

Twice Tyger is the stop most likely to be new to you. The Gilroy Dispatch reported in August that the regenerative-farming vineyard opened a seasonal walk-in tasting room this summer at 11775 Watsonville Road. The room is in a facility leased from the Dorcich family, and it now opens Thursday through Monday. The winery grows 11 grape varieties on 15 planted acres, mostly Bordeaux-style reds. The same report said Twice Tyger expected to break ground on a permanent production building and tasting pavilion within several months. Construction would take about 18 months, with the goal of bringing the 2027 harvest into its own facility. The tasting room on the passport this October is temporary, and the plan behind it is timed to next year's harvest.

One Saturday, Both Stops

The two schedules fit together on October 24. The passport tasting window ends at 4 p.m., and the patch stays open well into the evening. Here is one way to order the day:

1. Noon to 4 p.m.: Taste along Watsonville Road and San Martin. Cottage Creek and Twice Tyger are both on Watsonville Road. Lion Ranch and CordeValle are close by in San Martin.
2. Mid-afternoon add-on: Little Uvas Vineyards isn't on the passport, but it hosts a Haunted Tasting Room that Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. at its San Martin tasting room on Fitzgerald Avenue.
3. Late afternoon into evening: Drive north to Spina Farms. The Morgan Hill Times photographed visitors there on October 4 posing in the orange evening light. Arrive before 9 p.m., when entry closes.
4. Sunday: Use the passport's second day for Cooper-Garrod or any stops you missed.

If you're tasting, plan for a designated driver before you head out. Watsonville Road is a country road.

The Water Has Already Gone Quiet

The harvest calendar matters more this time of year partly because the lake calendar has ended. Santa Clara County Parks lists Coyote Lake's boating season as mid-April to mid-October, so by this weekend it is over or ending. Boaters planning for next spring should know about a county change that began September 14, 2026. Boats entering county park waters without an approved band now go through a 30-day quarantine. Details are on the county's boating page.

Anderson Lake is closer to most of town, but much of it isn't an option. The county's closures page, last updated October 6, says boating, fishing, the boat ramp and several picnic and trail areas will stay closed until about 2032 for the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project. The same page lists no trail closures at Coyote Lake–Harvey Bear Ranch. That makes it the easy hiking choice on a cool morning before an afternoon of tasting.

After the Harvest, the Calendar Moves Back Downtown

When the corn comes down and the passport weekend is over, Morgan Hill's events move back to the center of town. Visit Morgan Hill's calendar lists these dates:

• November 28: Jingle Market on 3rd Street, a Small Business Saturday pop-up, and the Merry Market Holiday Bazaar, with local vendors and Santa. Merry Morgan Hill holiday programming runs from that day through December 31.
• December 4: Night of Music and Magic, a holiday concert with family activities.
• December 5: Holiday Tea at Villa Mira Monte, and the Morgan Hill Holiday Lights Parade that evening.

For a look at how downtown's event calendar grew after the farmers market moved, see our piece on where downtown Morgan Hill's extra space went. For the trails and tasting rooms that stay open all year, see our weekend guide to Morgan Hill.

If you own near the pumpkin rows off Santa Teresa Boulevard or the vineyards along Watsonville Road and want to know how that setting shows up in today's pricing, Bouja Swenson Group can walk you through it. Get a Free Market Analysis, and we'll put your home's setting in context with recent local sales.