Visiting the Farm
The farm address is 11885 Jewell Road in Thompsonville. You can find detailed instructions via our directions page.
January – March
The farm is closed to the public.
Online purchases with shipping or pick-up are available.
April – May
The farm is open Saturday from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm for shopping and feeding the alpacas.
Interactive tours are not available.
June – July
The farm is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm for shopping and feeding the alpacas.
Interactive tours are available on Friday and Saturday at 11:00, 12:30, and 2:00.
August
The farm is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm for shopping and feeding the alpacas.
Interactive tours are not available after August 3rd.
September – December
The farm is open Saturday from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm for shopping and feeding the alpacas
.Interactive tours are not available.
Closed on major holidays. Any changes to our standard hours are posted in our event calendar, on Facebook, and on Google.
No, a reservation is not required to visit the farm. You are welcome to come anytime during our standard hours. If you’d like to take an interactive tour, we strongly recommend a reservation so you can guarantee your spot.
Our farm store is located in the same barn as our female alpacas, so you will be able to meet the female alpacas when shopping. We must keep our boys and girls separate, so access to the boy alpacas is only available via a guided tour.
Our alpacas are eager to meet visitors and they love when humans hand-feed them. We offer feed in the store for purchase. To protect the health and welfare of our herd, outside food is strictly prohibited.
No. We are a working farm and we must protect you and our herd. To enter into a barn or paddock, you must be with a farm staff member. If you desire this experience, we recommend you book a guided tour.
We do not allow dogs near our alpaca paddocks or the store. If you bring a dog, it must remain in your vehicle for the entire time you are at the farm.
Dogs are the largest predator to alpacas in the United States and our alpacas get very nervous when a dog arrives. This nervous reaction will not only compromise the health of our pregnant females, but it will also degrade the experience of others in attendance.
We can handle groups of family and friends, as well as structured tour groups. Our property can also accommodate tour bus parking.
It sure is. You have a large field that can be used for parking.
We have paused Harvest Host for the 2024 season.
Cool Outside Venues With Music, Drinks, and Food:
Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville
St. Ambrose Cellars in Beulah
Family Diners:
JK’s Whisper Cafe in Buckley
Patty Cakes Restaurant & Bakery in Buckley
Low Key Bars With Good Food:
Buckley Roadside Bar in Buckley
Geno’s Sports Bar And Grill in Thompsonville
Interactive Alpaca Tours
You can find the tour schedule for the entire spring, summer, and fall via our event calendar. YOu can also go straight to the booking website at https://bookeo.com/cottoncreekfarms.
Tours are run at 11:00 am, 12:30 pm, and 2:00 pm. Please view our event calendar to view which days and times are available for tours.
For the 2024 season, we won’t be offering tours until June. At that time they will be held on Fridays and Saturdays. Please check our event calendar for specific days, as our regular schedule does occasionally change.
A tour lasts about 60 minutes. We encourage you to plan on an hour and a half, so you have time to fully experience the farm and visit the onsite store.
The tour is appropriate for all ages. The alpacas are gentle and very good around children, so even the smallest children will be able to enjoy the adventure.
You can book your tour online at https://bookeo.com/cottoncreekfarms.
Tour tickets are $1, $5, or $10 per person depending on age.
We’ve been told many times that we should charge more for our tour tickets. We get that, however, we also strongly believe in pricing our tours low enough so that every family, regardless of economic standing, can enjoy the alpacas as much as we do.
We recommend that you book your tour in advance so you can guarantee a spot. We have to cap the number of people per tour for safety reasons and this means we cannot guarantee a spot is available for impromptu ticket purchases. However, if spots remain open, we are happy to sell you a ticket inside the farm store.
Our ticket software will allow you to change your ticket yourself. Please reference your email confirmation to access your account and make modifications.
Because tours have limited space available, changes are not allowed within 48 hours of your tour time.
Please do not call or email the farm for tour changes. We are a working farm and we do not staff available to make changes for you. You’ll find our staff is out with the animals, so it is necessary for you to make your own changes for tours.
We do not have gluten free alpaca feed available, however, we do have plastic gloves that can be used when feeding the alpacas.
No. While we do get asked this question a lot by the kids, this is not an option. The alpaca body frame is not designed to carry weight. Alpacas are fiber producers and that is their true gift to humans.
Of course. We do have a few picnic tables that you are welcome to use.
Please note that any food must stay at the tables and it cannot be taken near the alpaca paddocks.
We can accommodate birthday parties if you’d like to book during our regular tour schedule.
Alpaca Products
Alpaca fiber is as soft as cashmere, three times warmer than sheep’s wool, hypoallergenic, water repellant, and odor resistant. These properties make alpaca products easy to wear and care for, as well as, very durable.
You can learn more at a blog post we wrote on the subject. See: https://cottoncreekfarms.com/why-alpaca-products-are-a-great-purchase/
Our products are made in Michigan, other states within the United States of America, Peru, and Ecuador.
Alpacas must be sheared annually for their health. This is a humane process and it is done with great care and by a team of professionals.
Our fur products come from Peru and they are harvested from already deceased animals. Over 80% of the world’s alpacas still live in Peru and in the Andes Mountains. Because environmental conditions and existing diseases (enteritis, enterotoxemia, and pneumonia) they have a much higher mortality rate than here in the United States. They lose many babies each year and this loss is by small family farmers. Instead of losing all value of the animal, the fur is harvest post-mortem and used so the small family farms can have some value from their alpaca breeding program. It is not a norm in our industry to kill alpacas to harvest the hides. We do not do it in the United States and reputable farms do not do it in Peru either.
Our store offers over 1,000 different alpaca products. Products that come from our alpacas include items like hats, headbands, mittens, cowls, scarves, baby booties, baby hats, dryer balls, rugs, trivets, nesting balls, Christmas ornaments, yarn, roving, and felt. We’re working on increasing the variety of products made from our alpacas and hope to expand this list soon.
While Grandma Lil is our favorite artisan, we also have alpaca products made locally by Kathy, Pat, Nancy, Jody, and a few U.S. based mills.
All other products would be made by artisans in Peru and Ecuador. You might ask why we would purchase products from Peru for resale. There are two main reasons.
The survival of the alpaca industry is heavily influenced by Peru. Over 80% of the world’s alpaca population still live in Peru and this community is important to the longevity of alpacas as a whole. We support these artisans because they are critical to our industry.
Another reason is the United States does not have a large number of mills that can support the production of alpaca products. It is very difficult to locate a mill that can produce garments from our alpaca fiber. We are working on establishing these relationships, but this process does take time.
Yes. All of the products within our onsite farm store are also available for purchase via our website’s online alpaca store.
If you live in or are visiting the Traverse City area, you are welcome to place an order online and select local pickup. Once done, just contact us ad let us know when you’d like to pick up your goods. We’ll do our best to accommodate your schedule.
At this time we do not ship to locations outside of the United States. We hope to offer this service in the future.
Just visit our contact page and reach out to us via a website inquiry or phone call. We’ll be happy to help.
We have a no-questions-asked return policy and simply require you to return products in their new condition and within thirty days of purchase.
We certainly can. Whether you need 500 socks for holiday gift baskets or a very unique gift for someone special, we’re here to help. Learn more about our corporate gift program.
Alpaca Livestock Purchases
We do sell alpacas to both new and existing farms. If you are interested in purchasing an alpaca, please reach out to us via our contact page.
We do not sell and ship alpacas overseas. We sell to locations within the United States only. We recommend you reach out to Little Creek Farm Alpacas if you’d like to ship alpacas overseas.
We do not sell baby alpacas. For the physical and mental health of the alpacas, crias (baby alpacas) must stay with their dam for at least six months.
Miniature alpacas do not exist. Small or mini alpacas are the results of genetic issues or problems related to improper nutrition.
While we do sell both boy and girl alpacas, we do not sell a mating pair to new farms. Alpaca males and females must be kept separate. The female anatomy cannot support frequent breedings. Gelded alpacas can still be problematic and cause the female harm if housed together.
We do not place alpacas in the same shelter or pastures as goats, sheep, horses, cows, pigs, or other livestock. We talk about this topic in-depth in a recent blog post. We recommend you read through the post to understand the ramifications of housing alpacas with other livestock. Chickens can easily intermix with alpacas.
4-H Program
If you are interested in joining our Farm and Fleece 4-H group, please send an inquiry via our contact page. Jason will follow up with you to discuss this opportunity further.
You do not need to own alpacas to participate. Each year we make a certain amount of alpacas available so children without farms can participate in 4-H. Please contact us to determine if we have an alpaca available for your child.
A Cloverbud is the youngest 4-H level and this begins at age five. You can learn more about the Cloverbud program at https://4-h.org/parents/programs-at-a-glance/.