Dixon, California ,.u. – The owners of a giant corn maze in Northern California, once crowned the largest in the world, want visitors to remember that getting lost can be fun, too.
“It’s confusing. It’s exciting, and in a world of GPS and constant signage, you always know where you are, where you’re going,” said Tayler Cooley, whose family owns Cool Patch Pumpkins. “When you’re inside the corn, everything looks the same until you get on a bridge and say ‘Oh, wait, I’m here. I thought I was over there.'”
Cooley’s Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze, located on Interstate 80 between Sacramento and San Francisco, has reopened for the fall season through Halloween. In 2007, and again in 2014, Cool Patch Pumpkins entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest corn maze.
It usually takes around 45 minutes to complete the maze, which spans 16.2 hectares (40 acres), and features five different bridges that allow visitors to rise above the plants. It is also known for the elaborate designs the team creates in the maze, which can be seen from above. This year’s one pays tribute to farmers. In previous seasons they remembered veterans and first responders with giant murals included in the design.
“Everything is done by hand,” Cooley explained. “We want to communicate something fun and exciting, and then we build our paths around that.”
On a recent afternoon, visitors from near and far toured the labyrinth.
“I have no sense of direction, and we could spend all day here. It’s okay. We have water. We’ll survive three days,” said Ryan Moore, who was visiting from Hawaii.
Shelly Tang of Redwood City, California, joked that if they get lost, they can always eat corn.
“My children have a better sense of direction than I do, so I will follow them,” he said.
A corn maze in Quebec, Canada, as well as others in Minnesota and Illinois, also boast records, either for area or length.
Beyond the maze, Cool Patch features a toddler corn pool filled with 150,000 pounds (68,000 kilograms) of dried corn.
