Clinton sits right next to Joint Base Andrews, and this year its fall weekend has fewer options than usual. The lake at Louise F. Cosca Regional Park is closed to fishing with no reopening date. The Surratt Society's John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tours are cancelled until further notice. That leaves two addresses for most of Clinton's fall outdoor time: Miller Farms on Piscataway Road, which has a fixed season, and Clearwater Nature Center on Thrift Road, which keeps its own calendar inside the same park as the closed lake.
As of today, October 6, the farm has eight weekend days left. Below is how those days line up and why the lake is off-limits. After that come the nearby options that fill in the gaps.
Eight Days on Piscataway Road
Miller Farms at 10140 Piscataway Rd. opened its 2026 fall weekends on October 3 and 4. Those two days have passed. Here's what's left on the farm's 2026 ticket calendar:
- Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11
- Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18
- Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25
- Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1
November 1 is the last date the farm lists, so treat that Sunday as closing day. Halloween falls on the final Saturday. That puts the farm's last full weekend on the same night as the county's Halloween events, which come up later in this post.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m. Online tickets are $16 per person, and children younger than 24 months get in free. Gate tickets cost $2 more, and the farm says they're limited and first come, first served. If you're planning around Halloween weekend, buy online ahead of time. That's the only way the farm guarantees entry.
Your ticket covers a hayride, the corn maze, slides, jump pads, a barnyard visit, pedal carts and games. Face painting, pony rides and concessions cost extra. Pumpkins, food and drinks are sold separately.
The pumpkins come from the market
Miller Farms sells locally grown apples and pumpkins at its farm market, but its 2026 fall listing doesn't advertise pick-your-own for either one. The farm's pick-your-own page is about strawberries. The farm market sells produce, homemade ice cream, doughnuts, jarred goods and barbecue daily. If you just want pumpkins and doughnuts, you may not need weekend admission at all.
On weekdays, the farm runs reservation-only field trips Wednesday through Friday in October. Time slots run from 9 a.m. to noon, with a minimum of 10 paying guests. Admission is $13.50 per person, and each guest gets one small pumpkin. For a scout troop, a homeschool group or a unit family event, that's $2.50 less per person than a weekend ticket bought online.
Why You Can't Fish at Cosca Lake This Fall
Cosca Regional Park sits at 11000 Thrift Road, also in Clinton. The park's official page leads with this alert:
"Please be advised that fishing is temporarily prohibited at the lake at Cosca Regional Park until further notice due to post-dredging environmental recovery."
The park page doesn't explain the dredging, but public procurement records do. In January 2025, Prince George's Parks posted a solicitation called "B45-119 Cosca Regional Park Lake Dredging & Maintenance." The scope covered dredging the lake, repairing the forebay, and maintaining the dam embankment and outfall. The first round of responses was due February 20, 2025. The project went out for bids again that summer. Maryland Bid Network reported that Bourn Environmental, LLC was the apparent low bidder at $1,091,000 when bids opened on July 28, 2025. An apparent low bid isn't a signed contract. The final award and final cost weren't in any public record we found. In August 2025, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported that Cosca Lake was being drawn down for renovations.
That's the timeline as far as public records go: a solicitation, a re-bid, a drawdown, and now a recovery period. No published source gives a date or a condition for fishing to reopen, and nothing we found mentions restocking. If casting a line at Cosca is part of your fall routine, check the park page before you load the car. The alert is the only official word on it.
The fishing closure is the only lake restriction on the park page. The rest of the amenity list still includes campgrounds, fire pits, picnic shelters, children's play equipment, a skate park, tennis courts, leashed-dog access, and both paved and natural-surface trails. The page shows those as park features. It doesn't confirm fall hours for each one, and it says nothing about boat rentals or the miniature train this season. Call ahead before promising the kids either.
Clearwater Keeps the Park Busy
Clearwater Nature Center sits inside Cosca Regional Park at 11401 Thrift Rd., and it still has programs on the fall calendar. This makes Clearwater the main reason to visit Cosca this fall:
- Campfire Night: Friday, October 9, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 for county residents and $8 for nonresidents.
- Open Carving Days: free, with sessions that include Wednesday, October 21, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Campfire Night falls on the Friday before the farm's second-to-last weekend. Book it, spend Saturday at Miller Farms, and a resident pays $22 a person for both, before pumpkins and extras. Open Carving Days are free and fall midweek, which suits anyone with a flexible shift schedule.
The Booth Tour Is Paused Too
The Surratt House Museum is Clinton's other historic draw. The Surratt Society says its John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tours are cancelled until further notice. The museum's online event calendar showed "App Unavailable" when we checked. The site's free 2026 Community Day was August 22, so the last scheduled public event this year has already happened. If a Surratt visit is on your list, contact the museum directly about fall hours instead of relying on the website.
Put the lake and the Booth tours together and two familiar Clinton outings are on hold this fall. That's why the eight farm days and the Clearwater calendar matter more than usual.
Once Miller Farms Closes
The county parks department has events around and after the farm season at parks outside Clinton.
Watkins Regional Park at 301 Watkins Park Drive in Upper Marlboro hosts Trek or Treat on October 23, the Friday before the farm's third-to-last weekend. On Halloween night, M-NCPPC's A Spooky Good Time runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at Tucker Road Athletic Complex. The farm closes at 5 p.m. that Saturday, so a family could spend the afternoon on Piscataway Road and still make the evening event.
After November 1, the next date on the calendar is Trot for a Turkey at Watkins on November 21. For more of what Upper Marlboro offers outdoors, our guide to parks, trails and everyday life in Upper Marlboro covers the area around Watkins.
Plan Extra Time for MD 4
If your drive to Clinton goes through the MD 4 and Suitland Parkway interchange, expect changes. On August 17, the State Highway Administration switched that construction zone to a new traffic pattern. SHA expects it to stay in place for about two years, with two lanes in each direction and dual northbound left-turn lanes onto Suitland Parkway. Allow extra time on a Saturday morning if you want to make the farm's 10 a.m. opening with tickets in hand.
Still Coming Soon
One more update for Camp Springs: L&L Hawaiian Barbecue's location page for 6349 Old Branch Ave. still says "Coming Soon" and gives no opening date. When it opens, it'll be a new lunch option on the Old Branch Avenue side of the base. For more about the area, see our page on everyday living near Joint Base Andrews and the Joint Base Andrews neighborhood guide.
If you're arriving at Andrews this fall and want to know which parks are open and where weekends happen nearby, I'll help you get settled. Let's connect. Schedule a consultation with Sharron Owens and we'll match your housing search to the life you want off base.
