Admission to Great Country Farms is $8 for children, $10 for adults, and always FREE for active duty and retired military members (with ID). The farm is located at 18780 Foggy Bottom Road, Bluemont, VA 20135.

I have to admit I was concerned about the long drive to Great Country Farms from my home in Urbana. One hour seemed a long way to drive to get to a farm when there are so many great farms here in Maryland. But I packed up my kiddos and went anyway because it was my first day away from teaching, and my kids (at age 3 and 5) seem less complain-y and more adventurous these days.

When I got there I immediately sensed that this farm was committed to giving visitors that personal feeling. Parking was easy and close to the entrance. I walked right in and was helped immediately by a warm and inviting staff member. He spent time telling us about the different park attractions that were included with my admission. I could tell he was proud to talk about the area where we could go to pick fruit. I was excited about the idea of gem mining so I asked him how to do it and he answered my questions patiently.

It wasn’t overly crowded that Tuesday morning which made for a very pleasant visit. I think what most surprised me was the sheer enormity of the farm and the seemingly never-ending amount of things to do. In all directions there were playsets and slides and soon after we began to enjoy any one activity I would look around and see about five more attractions that I hadn’t known were there. I LOVED that my kids could have amused themselves on any one of these attractions for hours, but I really wanted them to get them to try everything.

We started with the jumping pillow (which was so fun), then moved on to the first climbing/slide area. Probably the most difficult part of this adventure was that I couldn’t let my kids get stuck for too long on any one thing or they would have not gotten to see everything. We still didn't get to several attractions even though I feel like we hit a million. After the first play area, my kids wanted to go to the play area with tractors and a boat. I tried to convince my kids to move on to the ninja obstacle course after that to no avail. They wanted to go to the next set of play equipment. Finally I distracted them with the huge corn kernel sandbox, and it was another thirty minutes before we moved on. Next up was a rope swing that my daughter loved. And then there was a huge speedy slide that you had to climb what seemed like 100 steps just to get up - my son LOVED this. Every time I told him “last time” he would go running up the hill again with a big smile on his face because he was pulling a fast one on me, continuing to climb that hill. Little did he know the joke was on him - I was in mommy heaven picturing my kids passed out from total complete exhaustion later that evening!


Eventually I convinced them to move on. We encountered a hill of tires, scooters, many more playsets with slides, several different pedal carts, a human hamster wheel, and a bamboo maze that my kids loved. All the while I had to reign them in from looking further beyond where we were to even more play equipment, dirt bikes, more mazes, fun games like tic tac toe and memory. 

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Finally, out of pure exhaustion, they gave in when I told them it was time to head back. I was still carrying a bag of sand and dirt in my backpack to use at the gem mining/sluicing station, and I really wanted my kids to get a chance to see the Ninja obstacle course. They loved it! It was so fun, although next time I will have them do it at the beginning when they are not so tired that we can’t confidently complete the course. Even after all that fun we did the gem mining station which my kids said was their favorite. They were so excited to uncover treasures and they loved being able to go home and add their gems to the treasure chest that their grandma gave them for their birthdays this year. 

 
Before leaving we stopped at the Roosterant to enjoy some pizza, and hot dogs. We made sure to buy some veggies at the store on the way out.

This experience was such a positive experience for both me and of my kids. The mix of having one million cool things to do paired with an environment that was incredibly welcoming and provided products that I felt were superb left me feeling like the long drive was totally worth it. The farm has lots of family events throughout the summer and what I thought might be just a once-a-year trip due to the distance now feels like I need to make it a regular monthly summer field trip.