This year’s Meadows Maze is a life-sized version of the board game Clue.
Co-manager Sarah Hopcott said the medium-sized maze – mapped out by GPS – is like the classic whodunit game, “only farmy.”
Maze detectives have to collect clues from hidden stations to eliminate farm animal suspects as they solve the mystery of “What’s Happened to Farmer Joe,” Hopcott added.
Opening Saturday, Aug. 9 and running until Oct. 19, three new challenges are set over 8.7 kilometres of trails amongst nearly a million stalks of corn.
The Hopcott farm also features a Mega Maze, a more than six-kilometre-long trail with 18 checkpoints in total, is for maze enthusiasts who have more time and want more of a challenge.
Hopcott says participants rarely get lost, but that is not always the case. For these occasions, she says, the farm has a maze patrol ready to go when someone calls.
“Everyone gets a map and phone number when they start,” explains Hopcott who adds lost maze participants can just call the number and mention which checkpoint they are at.
“It is recommended that people bring their cell phones with them when they come.”
For preschool-aged children, the Farm Tracks Maze is recommended. Only in its second year, Farm Tracks explorers follow winding paths to locate six stations that are set up “low to the ground so kids don’t have any trouble finding what they are looking for.”.
Typically, the maze takes about 20 minutes for children to complete.
Birds of Prey is a new attraction at the corn maze this year. Hopcott says the exhibit features falcons, which are used at Pitt Meadows blueberry farms to hunt and scare away the smaller birds that eat crops. Favorite attractions from the past such as a petting zoo, bee observatory, hay wagons and children’s crafts will also be showcased.
Meadows Maze is ranked as one of the largest corn mazes in the Pacific Northwest and has been open to the public since 2000. Last year, the award-winning attraction brought in 13,000 corn maze fans, and Hopcott expects just as many this season.
“It’s always dependent upon weather, especially on the weekends,” she adds.
• Meadows Maze is located at 13672 Reichenbach Rd. in Pitt Meadows. It is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.