Every September, Evergreen Mountain Village welcomes the beginning of fall with Mountain Village Harvest Days, a month-long celebration created around kids, families, and the first weeks of the Colorado harvest season. The village is covered in pumpkins, hay bales, wooden wagons, baskets of apples, sunflowers, scarecrows, and early fall decorations while the leaves across the surrounding mountains begin changing. September is still firmly harvest season, so the focus stays on apples, pumpkins, farm animals, outdoor activities, and letting kids spend an entire fall day playing outside rather than anything spooky or Halloween-themed.

The pumpkin patch and apple orchard stay open throughout Harvest Days, with kid-sized baskets available for apple picking and rows of pumpkins where children can wander around and choose one of their own to bring home. At the cider station, kids can help work an old-fashioned apple press and watch fresh cider being made. Nearby, there are caramel apple and fall cookie decorating stations, pumpkin painting, scarecrow building, apple stamping, leaf art, coloring, and other seasonal projects spread across the Harvest House craft porch.

Most of Harvest Days is designed to let kids explore at their own pace. A mini corn maze winds through part of the grounds, while the Little Farmers Harvest Trail takes them around Mountain Village collecting stamps as they complete different activities. There’s a fall scavenger hunt, a giant bubble field, and a hay-bale playground filled with tunnels, climbing areas, small slides, and obstacles. Throughout the day, the village green hosts sack races, pumpkin rolling, ring toss, beanbag toss, kid-sized corn hole, and other harvest games.

Kids can climb aboard the little tractor-pulled carts for rides around the festival grounds, while the larger hay wagons take families farther around Mountain Village to see the changing leaves and mountain scenery. Pony rides are available on select weekends, and during the first part of September, the sunflower field remains open for families to walk through, pick flowers, and take pictures before the last summer blooms disappear.

The Fall Farmyard is another major part of Harvest Days, with goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, miniature donkeys, and other friendly farm animals. Kids can visit and pet the animals, and small feed cups are available for the animals that can safely be hand-fed.

For toddlers and preschoolers, Mountain Village has a separate Little Harvest area where everything is designed for smaller children. There’s a tiny hay maze, sensory bins, bubbles, little playhouses, simple climbing structures, easy harvest games, outdoor storytime, and toddler-friendly crafts, giving younger kids plenty to do without having to keep up with the bigger children.

Weekends bring even more activity to Mountain Village. Family-friendly live music and dancing take over the village green, outdoor storytimes are held on blankets and hay bales, and Little Bakers sessions let kids help make simple seasonal treats such as apple hand pies and cinnamon pastries. Food stands throughout the village serve cider donuts, apple fritters, caramel apples, kettle corn, warm apple cider, hot chocolate, and plenty of other fall treats.

Fall photo spots are scattered throughout the grounds with pumpkins, hay bales, apple crates, old wooden wagons, sunflowers, and views of the Colorado mountains. Families can stop for pictures throughout the day without the festival feeling like one big staged photo opportunity.

As the sun begins disappearing behind the mountains and the September air gets colder, firepits are lit throughout the village. Families can grab blankets, roast s’mores, listen to the last of the music from the village green, and stay as the string lights around the Harvest House and Mountain Village begin glowing for the evening.