Pumpkin patches celebrate the pumpkin as a prominent symbol of autumn and the only vegetable to smile in its driver's license photo. Celebrate the flavor of the season with today's Groupon to MacDonald's Ranch in Scottsdale. Choose between the following options:

• For $8, you get a pumpkin-patch outing for two (a $17.49 value)
For $15, you get a pumpkin-patch outing for four (a $34.98 value)

The ranch is open daily from October 1 to October 30 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. and on October 31 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Guests 12 months and younger are free.

Each Fall, MacDonald's Ranch sections off a sliver of its 1,280 acres to host a medley of exhilarating autumnal activities. Hayrides powered by horses and mules shuttle visitors through the scenic Sonora Desert en route to the pumpkin patch stationed nearby. Pumpkin piles alert riders and meandering scarecrows of their proximity to the festivities, where children can don helmets and hop aboard a pony or visit the petting zoo to exchange salutations with miniature donkeys, goats, bunnies, and pigs. Western-themed games generate contagious laughter with sack races, horseshoe pits, and rounds of cowboy golf littered with ten-gallon hats. Visitors can delve into the gem mine and unearth piles of multicolored stones or venture onto the winding paths of the hay maze to test their mind's mettle. The ranch paves space for picnic tables, so groups can rest and refuel with sack lunches or something hot from The Grill.