Corn Mazes Make Fall Fun by Design
Corn Mazes Make Fall Fun by Design
By Brian Fanelli
Each fall, intricate corn mazes crop up at Minnesota farms, wineries, apple orchards and pumpkin patches, following the centuries-old European maze tradition. Simply a-maze-ing to see from above, recent designs produced locally include geometric labyrinths, a Minnesota Timberwolves logo, a headless horseman and a Minnesota state map.
Your kids will love spending a brisk fall day exploring a Minnesota corn maze / Minneapolis Northwest Tourism
Navigating a circuitous journey through 7-foot-tall stalks of corn leads to some dead ends, but most mazes offer maps and clues as guides, and scavenger hunts and games to make it interesting. Some destinations have straw bale mazes for younger explorers. Most sites have music, food, rides, produce picking and other activities to fill an afternoon.
Noteworthy Twin Cities Corn Mazes
Whether you're a Twin Cities visitor or a resident looking for close-to-home family fun, you'll find plenty of fantastic corn mazes across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
To explore the Minnesota's largest corn maze, head to Brooklyn Park for Twin Cities Harvest Fest and Maze. Wandering through the 20-acre corn maze is just the start of your adventure, though. You and your kids will also love the pig, duck and goat races, giant slide, pony rides, kiddy train and bungee-powered pumpkin slinger.
Sever's Corn Maze in Shakopee features everything from corn pits to pig races, camel rides, magic shows, an exotic animal petting zoo and, of course, a truly spectacular corn maze. Sever's changes up its corn maze theme and design every year, with past designs including a T-Rex, firetruck, locomotive and the wild west.
Noteworthy Greater Minnesota Corn Mazes
Just outside of St. Cloud, A and G Produce entices visitors with Halloween-themed fun for the whole family. Younger visitors can't get enough of the cow train, bounce house, miniature pony rides and 13-acre corn maze, while older kids (and kids at heart) love shooting the corn cannon and using the pumpkin sling shot. And for a truly unique experience, stick around after the sun goes down for a zombie-themed paintball game.
About 20 minutes away is the Foley-based Stoney Brook Farms, which can now claim to have the World's Largest Corn Maze after doing metaphorical laps around a former record setter in Northern California. How large, you ask? About 110 acres and 32 miles of winding paths that were plowed in the shape of such horror icons as Freddie Krueger, Michael Meyers, Jason Voorhees and Pennywise.
Visitors looking for a fright will want to visit Paul Bunyan Land's Hidden Hollows Haunted Corn Maze in Brainerd, which remixes Minnesota's favorite larger-than-life lumberjack into the state's largest haunted experience. Hidden Hollows features a haunted corn maze, terrifying tractor ride, spooky haunted house and more.
Way up in Warroad, on Lake of the Woods in beautiful northwest Minnesota, the Country Corn Maze features an 8-acre corn maze, hayrides, you-pick pumpkins, footgolf and "Sven and Ole's Escape Room," a three-level test of wits recommended for kids 10 and older.
Brian Fanelli is a writer and editor for Explore Minnesota. When he isn't writing about life in The North, you'll find him browsing the sci-fi shelves in a local bookstore, biking one of Minnesota's spectacular trails or walking his Chihuahua around Minneapolis.