World’s Largest Corn Maze
According to Guinness World Records, the world’s largest corn maze is now located at Cool Patch Pumpkins in Dixon, CA!!! The farm is run by the Cooley brothers who started their pumpkin patch in 2000. The corn maze itself has grown progessively every year, now spanning across more than 40 acres. The brothers refer to it as “a kind of test…[where] you have to have enough patience and problem-solving skills to make it through…enough resolve to solve the puzzle and get out.”
The Sacramento Bee eloquently referred to the maze as ” an emerald green world of 7-foot cornstalks and damp clay walkways, where visitors can see only to the next turn, and disembodied voices float through the air.” The owner himself admits to reluctance to enter the center of the maze where the twisting pathways are the darkest and most confusing! As if this weren’t enough to make you suitably terrified, they even allow people to enter the maze at night for an extra bit of eeriness. The combination makes it the perfect activity to get the whole family into the Halloween spirit.
There are also a plethora of other family activities aside from the gargantuan corn maze. To begin with, there is a small one acre corn maze for the little kids to enjoy. They have a $3.00 hay ride as well as Big Tricycles and Pedal Karts to ride around the pumpkin farm. They are also hosting a Scarecrow Contest. There are already some pretty terrifying–and amazing–pictures up of some of the entrants on their website. And, of course, the highlight of the day is picking out the perfect speciman from the pumpkin patch to trasform into your Halloween Jack-O-Lantern. You might want to pick up an extra pumpkin to do a little baking. Jackie at Kids Dish has an amazing recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies up that I am already addicted to. They are relatively healthy and still manage to be absolutely delicious!
When you set out to obtain your perfect baking pumpkin, make sure that you enter the pumpkin patch at either 8550 Currey Road or 8700 Sievers Road both of which can be accessed from I-80, about 30 minutes west of Sacramento. The farm is open every day until October 31st from 9:00AM to 9:00PM. Be sure to bring your own falshlight if you will be entering the maze in the evening and plan on spending anywhere from one hour to three hours inside the maze depending on how good your navigational skills are. Also, you may want to keep in mind that the weather here is still likely to be wet during the early part of the week. However, the weather is set (fingers-crossed anyway!) to warm up a bit when the sun comes out this weekend so I’d recommend that you plan to embark on your adventure Saturday-ish. Have a wonderful time and be on the lookout for other fabulously frightening things to do this Halloween season!
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October 20th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
[...] in Sacramento. Most of them are geared towards families with young children–like the world’s largest corn maze in Dixon. Be sure to take advantage of the opportunity as there won’t be many more of them this [...]
October 28th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
[...] to do in honor of Halloween. Up until now, I haven’t been able to find anything other than the corn maze in Dixon–and let’s face it, that’s only scary if you’re bad at reading maps and have [...]