Aragon Alpacas

What a serendipitous discovery! My wife and I were visiting Eugene, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest for the first time in our lives, driving towards the coast — and a good friend told us about Aragon Alpacas.
We were loving the pastoral scenic farmland on the way to Aragon Alpacas, and found it easily. Ann was an amazing hostess, she answered so many of our questions about alpacas, let us feed them carrots, we discovered some great clothing items, socks, vests, sweaters, mittens, scarves, all made from the amazing alpaca fleece. It was so much fun.
The alpacas are amazing — they were mesmerized (by us, or our dog? Our dog.)
They reminded me of meerkats, all standing, seemingly at alert because of their long necks, looking in the same direction, all swiveling their heads in unison.
Each alpaca has a unique, fantastical, exotic or literary in origin name… eg. Bubinga (African rosewood, which he in fact resembles, and his mother has a south African name), Gryffin (a la Gryffindor, he is red with a white flash)… You really must meet them. They’re fascinating.
My wife now wants an alpaca farm («We’ll never have to kill them!»)

Ann and Mike Dockendorf from Aragon raise the most adorable alpacas in town, and if you want to drown in cuteness, go visit them and pet the alpacas! You can arrange ranch visits through their website, but they also have special open days, and you can usually see them when you visit the gift shop on the farm which sells alpaca woollen clothing, scarves, skeins, etc.
We stopped by this week only to discover that Aragon is built on the old ranch of a family friend of ours! They’ve been here for about seven years now, and during the holidays they’re open noon to 4pm from Thursday through Sunday, so you can go see the alpacas and pick up christmas gifts. The owner, Ann, came out right away when we drove up and offered to let us into the fenced area to come hug the alpacas :)
They have close to 50 in total, in all different colors, and all equally goofy and fluffy looking. Many came up to sniff my hand, not all wanted to be petted today. I finally found an adorable beige one who was lying on the ground and seemed really happy for me to pet his neck and rub him behind the ears for a long time. Sooo adorable!!! I only wish I could have my own alpacas.
Aragon sometimes takes their alpacas to events and I think Ann said they do some charitable work with them as well. I’m sure children would love to visit them. The alpacas are well socialized, well behaved, and seem very happy at Aragon. They also have alpacas for sale, for breeding or as pets is you live on a farm or a place with enough grass land. You need about an acre to have a couple of them, and you need at least two because they’re pack animals and will be unhappy alone.
Go check out the ranch some time and meet the alpacas, you won’t regret it!