Best Late Summer Family Day Trip from Topeka, Lenexa & Shawnee: The KC Sunflower Festival

For families in Topeka, Lenexa, Shawnee, and the surrounding areas, the KC Sunflower Festival at KC Pumpkin Patch is the late-summer day trip that pays off every time.

Running August 1–2, 8–9, and 15–16, 2026 at 13875 S. Gardner Rd. in Olathe, the Sunflower Festival is about an hour from Topeka and a short drive for families in Lenexa and Shawnee. Open Saturdays and Sundays from 10am–6pm, it's a full-day event that's easy to build a weekend morning and afternoon around.

What’s Included?

Here's what your family gets with one admission ticket: access to the farm's sunflower fields at peak August bloom, 20+ photo op locations throughout the property, and 60+ farm activities including the Mega Slide, Ninja Course, Adventure Castle, rock climbing wall, duck races, giant bubbles, and more. It's the kind of day where you arrive thinking you'll stay a few hours and end up there until close.

The sunflower field itself is the draw… and if you haven't walked through tall Kansas sunflowers in full summer bloom, it's genuinely one of those experiences that's hard to describe until you're in it. Kids lose their minds over the height and the color. Parents lose their minds taking photos. It's a good time for everyone.

Planning Tips

For families coming from Topeka, a few tips: build in extra drive time on busy summer Saturdays, pack layers for the evening if you're staying late, and grab a family-4 pack (online only!) before you arrive. Because tickets are flexible between open dates, you can buy in advance and decide which August weekend works best as the month approaches.

This is the summer send-off your family is looking for.