In autumn, there’s not many Halloween activities for families in Idaho Falls. Sure, there’s Halloween night for trick-or-treating, but what about the weeks leading up to the holiday? Teens have haunted houses and scary movies, but kids and families usually opt for milder activities.
Luckily, the U-Pick Red Barn offers fall-themed family fun for 6 weeks through September and October.
Located near Tautphaus Zoo, the U-Pick Red Barn stands tall, surrounded by hay bales and rows and rows of pumpkins.
Rollie Walker, owner, said the barn is nearly 100 years old, as it is the original barn that stood when he first purchased the property.
Rollie bought the land 20 years ago for his son and nephew, McNeil and Chase, so they could learn the value of hard work and how to run a business. McNeil passed away in an accident years ago, so now Rollie and Chase run the business together to keep McNeil’s memory alive.
“I’m there all the time because it’s my hobby and it’s how I stay connected to the son I lost,” Rollie said.
“We started out raising pumpkins, and we didn’t really know what we were doing,” he said. “These boys just did it all by hand. We thought we had to wash them and store them. We’re potato farmers, so we had that kind of mentality.”
The boys would grow more and more pumpkins each year as the barn became more popular.
“It had become a little business for the boys,” Rollie said. “And then it was, why don’t we let people pick their own pumpkins, and voila, the name U-Pick Red Barn was born.”
Chase said learning how to run the business gave him priceless lifelong lessons and memories.
“The vibe that we have there is unlike anything else,” he said. “Families come and everyone’s having a good time. It’s really not like anything else, especially in Idaho Falls with nothing really to do in the fall. There's six weeks where you bring families and create memories that will last a lifetime.”
Rollie said every year they add more and more features for families and kids.
“We’re the world’s greatest babysitter,” he laughed. “We still are. Period.”
One of the popular attractions is a train that gives rides around the property. At first, the train could only hold 12 child passengers.
“We had a problem with the train,” he said. “It had become so popular we couldn’t give enough people rides and we couldn’t keep adults off the trains. So we decided to build a bigger train. We built it ourselves and it looked exactly like the little train, except it held 70 people instead of 12 kids and now adults can and do ride it.”
They also recently added a night train ride that takes visitors through a path of Christmas lights. The U-Pick Red Barn also has jumper pillows, pumpkin cannons, corn pits, slides, hay mazes and small pedal tractors.
“You know what the most popular thing at the barn is though?” Rollie asked as Chase chuckled. “We’ve got all these things, but the most popular thing at the barn is our kitties. People would die if we didn’t have our kitties.”
Every fall, the barn has kittens that roam freely around the property for kids and families to pet and play with. Rollie said the cats are always vaccinated by veterinarians and that they love getting all the attention from the visitors.
The barn’s slowest day used to be Halloween until a couple of years ago when Chase and Rollie figured out a way to make it their busiest day. They now use their pumpkin cannons to launch candy in the air for kids on the days leading up to and on Halloween.
“We go to Fred Meyer and get 100,000 pieces of candy,” Chase said. “So throughout the day we blast candy for hours and hours. The kids go nuts. It’s one of our most iconic things we do. It rains candy.”
Another feature the barn has is its annual tradition of setting off fireworks near McNeil’s birthday, which is Oct. 1.
“At first we were doing it for McNeil but a few years ago we started to dedicate the fireworks to anyone who had ever lost a child,” Rollie said. “It is tearful, because a lot of people have lost children and that’s something you feel as a parent different from anything else.”
On top of all the activities, the barn also sells signature food. They have from-scratch caramel corn, homemade donuts and rolls, burgers, corn dogs, genuine Italian pizza, and Rollie’s favorite, the Chacarero, a sandwich made with roast beef, garlic butter, shredded green beans, pickled jalepeños, tomatoes and mayonnaise.
“If you get food at the red barn today, it’s signature,” Rollie said. “It's the best and you won’t find it better anywhere else.”
Rollie called the barn an “iconic success” and says people come all the way from Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole to make family memories. He said U-Pick Red Barn is important to the city of Idaho Falls as it’s one of the only places around with wholesome family fun in autumn.
However, Rollie said as the barn grows, it faces obstacles from the City of Idaho Falls.
The Walkers said they get pushback regarding parking, food truck permits, adding attractions and widening Rollendet, the street that the barn is on.
Rollie said they plan on replacing the current slides with larger new ones that are safer and more fun, but haven’t been able to get city approval for 3 years.
“It hurts our hearts that the more we try to make it special for families, the more resistance we get,” Rollie said. “We need the people to reach out and write to city officials, primarily the mayor and say why they love the barn. We need them to tell the mayor how important it is to them that the city supports it.”
Rollie and Chase said they hope that families who love the barn will write testimonials to the mayor so they can keep growing with her support.
“The town loves the place,” Rollie said, “and we need the mayor to help us open and go forward and be here for the city.”