Prancer's Farm
Halfway through your ride, Sunburst Railbikes pulls into Prancer’s Farm, a working farm stop in the heart of Heritage Valley. Stretch your legs and say hello to the resident goats, horses, and llamas, who are always happy to greet visitors. Browse fresh local produce grown right in the surrounding citrus and avocado country, and grab a snack or a photo before climbing back aboard. It’s a favorite moment of the trip for kids and adults alike.
Farm Stand
The farm stand sits at the heart of Prancer’s, stocked daily with whatever the fields are giving up that week. Nothing here spends time in a refrigerator or on a truck. Produce moves straight from harvest to the shelf, which is why the strawberries taste brighter and the tomatoes have earned a local reputation as some of the best around. The selection follows the growing calendar, so every visit looks a little different: berries and stone fruit through the warm months, the valley’s signature oranges and avocados, fresh-cut flowers, local honey, and seasonal vegetables rounding out the tables. Railbike riders get a built-in browsing break here, with time to fill the bike basket before rolling on. Even if you only grab a bag of oranges grown a few rows from where you’re standing, you’ll taste the difference a few hundred feet makes over a few hundred miles.
Pick Your Own Fruit
If browsing the stand isn’t hands-on enough, head into the fields and harvest your own. Prancer’s opens its rows for u-pick throughout the growing season, and strawberries are the star: sun-warmed, fully ripened on the plant, and picked at the exact moment you want to eat them. As the calendar turns, the picking changes with it, from tomatoes heavy on the vine to watermelons and other seasonal vegetables ready to be pulled straight from the ground. There’s no shortcut to that kind of freshness, and no better way to show kids where food actually comes from than putting a basket in their hands and pointing them down a row. Check with the farm for what’s ripe before your visit, since the fields set the schedule, not the other way around.
Petting Zoo
The animals might be the most popular residents at Prancer’s, and they know it. The petting zoo is open seven days a week and home to a friendly cast of goats, llamas, horses, cows, and more. This is a slow-down kind of stop. Let the goats investigate your pockets, scratch a llama behind the ears, and watch your kids discover that a cow up close is a lot bigger than the ones in picture books. For railbike riders, the pens are just steps from where the bikes pull in, making it an easy add to the farm stop even on a tight schedule. Fair warning for parents: this is consistently the part of the visit kids refuse to leave, so budget your time accordingly. The animals will happily take all the attention you can spare.
Pumpkin Patch
Every October, all 42 acres of Prancer’s transform into one of Ventura County’s biggest fall celebrations. The patch itself sprawls with pumpkins and gourds of every size, plus marigold and sunflower fields blazing alongside the corn. But the pumpkins are just the beginning. There’s a corn maze to get lost in, tractor and barrel train rides, pig races, mechanical bull rides, zip lines, and pumpkin cannons launching gourds skyward. Each weekend carries its own theme, from Wild Wild West to Fiesta on the Farm, so no two visits play the same. Sunburst runs special Fall Harvest tours straight to the patch, letting you pedal through the groves and arrive at the festivities the memorable way, jack-o’-lantern-to-be riding home in your bike basket. If you’re building a fall tradition within reach of Los Angeles, this is the one worth locking in.
Christmas Trees
Christmas trees are where the whole Prancer’s story began, and the farm still does the season right. After the last pumpkin leaves the patch, the farm transitions into Cowboy Christmas, a western spin on the holidays where twinkling lights meet rustic charm from sunset to 9 PM. Stroll acres of fresh, fragrant trees, including choose-and-cut options alongside premium trees brought down from Oregon, in sizes to fit every living room and tradition. Then make an evening of it: photos with Santa in his barn, hot cocoa and warm churros, a vendor market stocked with handmade gifts, and bonfires to gather around once the sun drops. Cutting your own tree beats untangling an artificial one from the garage every time, and here it comes with an entire farm’s worth of holiday atmosphere. One visit and it tends to become an annual appointment.
Live Events
The calendar at Prancer’s rarely sits still. Throughout the year, the farm hosts festivals and community celebrations that turn a fruit stand stop into a full afternoon: live bands, mariachi performances, folklorico dancers, and even dancing horses have all taken the stage. Sea Ag Farm Day opens the farm free of charge for a hands-on celebration of agriculture and education, while themed weekends and seasonal festivities keep the entertainment rotating with the harvest. Some events add stilt walkers, jugglers, and vendor markets to the mix, giving the farm the feel of a small-town fair with better produce. Check the Prancer’s Farm calendar before your railbike trip, because timing your ride to a festival weekend is the ultimate upgrade: you get the groves, the farm, and a party at the far end of the tracks, all in one outing.
