Happy Valley Alpaca Ranch

Owners: Mike, Linda Gooch

Location: 4629 Happy Valley Road, Sequim

Call for Saturday tours

Phone: 681-0948

Website: happyvalleyalpacaranch.com

A visit to Happy Valley Alpaca Ranch works all five senses: smell, sight, touch, sound and taste — well, hopefully not taste, unless you get shot in the face by alpaca spit.

Every Saturday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. through January, families can visit the ranch during its free Open Barn Event at 4629 Happy Valley Road, south of

Sequim. In small tour groups, led by owner Mike Gooch, they’ll smell the sweet hay, see the 13 females and six males, separated by a fence — “Because they’re just like freshmen boys,” quipped co-owner Linda Gooch — touch the alpacas’ dense and velvety fleece and perhaps hear a few of them hum.

Hot cider and cookies are part of the tour.

For a fee, on-site professional photographer Cindy Marie Kern will take candid shots and more formal portraits of families that she uploads to a private online gallery.

“You will be able to view, download a copy for free and order prints, wall art and keepsakes. These will be shipped directly to your home,” Kern explained.

Some people have surprised their relatives with Christmas cards featuring them and the alpacas.

The Gooches have been raising and breeding alpacas for their softly sumptuous and cold-resistant fleece for the past 18 years — their fleece is 6-7 times warmer than sheep’s wool, they said.

From the beginning, the doe-eyed creatures never were just livestock for the Gooches — since 1997, they’ve each had their own name and will come when called. And their inner clocks tell them when it’s breakfast or supper time.

The alpacas range in age from 4-16 years but babies or crias are in the future after a long hiatus. Mike said he plans to breed three females this fall and another three in the spring, staggering their yearlong gestation period.

“We’ve had 7,000 visitors in the past eight years from 24 countries,” Mike said. “The purpose of the Open Barn Event is just to have something different for local people to do during the holidays,” he said, noting that the herd is so gentle that children may walk among them as long as they don’t touch the alpacas’ faces or necks.

Both Gooches said alpacas, native to the Andes in South America, are like cats in their sociability. “They want to be left alone but if you leave them alone, they come to you,” said Linda. “They’re very sweet and very smart and know their names. Crazily enough, they come in about 5 p.m. every night because they know they’re going to get fresh hay. They’re supposed to weigh about 150 pounds but we have some hefty ones,” she laughed.

After shearing, the Gooches send their alpaca’s fleece to a processor, which returns it washed, ready for their favorite spinners Anne Olson and Lauralee DeLuca.

About 65 percent of the inventory in their cozy shop is locally handmade and their goal is to make that 100 percent. Items for sale include raw fiber, yarn, hats, gloves, mittens, glittens, socks, scarves, shawls, ruanas, capes, ponchos, sweaters, jackets, blankets, throws, comforters, teddy bears, and hand and finger puppets.

Call 681-0948 to reserve your date with the alpacas on Saturdays through January.