Texas: Best Corn Mazes and Fall Festivals - Family Fun for All Ages. 
From North Texas to the Valley we have a list of terrific possibilities for a quick, easy daytrips and getaways. All the fun is inlcuded.
Here's the scoop. Our list includes the Family Travel Files staff picks and reader’s favorites from TELL MOM. Play flashlight tag or chase the kids through the corn stalks; ride on a wagon full of hay or paint a pumpkin face. The season looks promising.
Donna: Donna’s Corn Maze and Crazy Family Fun (October1 2011 through January 8, 2012). This all-inclusive day out spot in the Valley combines fun with learning for all ages. The focal point is the eight-acre maze with 3 1/2 miles of pathways to follow using a MAZE-game card. For tint tykes there’s a Funny Finger Maze which involves colored chalk and clever game clues. All ages can enjoy a 15- minute hayride around the property or spend a few minutes in a giant corn box. For a little friendly completion try your luck at the duck races – the perfect physics lesson using air, water and gravity. And as you might expect there is a chance to meet bunnies, peacocks, lamb, and sheep in the Family Adventure Barn and a clever mini-train that circles the park just for fun. Don’t miss the funnel cakes and cotton candy.
Best part: Hay Bale Mountain offers hours of climbing and jumping fun for kids. New this year: A bucking bronco ride that provides a crazy ride while teaching kids about geometry.
Bonus points: Any weekend night during the season join families around the bonfire, roast marshmallows, and navigate the maze by flashlight. (Donna’s Corn Maze Rivera's Machinery Drive Expressway 83 in Donna TX. (956) 239-4504 or
www.donnascornmaze.com)
Cleburne: Mainstay Farm Family Pumpkin Days (Saturdays 10/8, 10/15. And 10/22, 2011). The menu for family fun includes more than hay rides and pumpkins. The three-story tree house is always popular, and all kids love to bounce on a giant jumping pillow. Tykes can navigate the wooden maze (allergy free). They have three mazes, a play-in-the hay area and a super chute slide plus a pedal-cart race track, and Goat-Scape Mountain. Taste sausage-on-a-stick, caramel apple chips, and save room for pumpkin ice cream.
Best part: They sell orange as well as designer pumpkins, hay bales, cornstalks, and gourds plus it’s possible to paint your own pumpkin.
Bonus points: Not part of Pumpkin Days but perhaps use for another time, the Farm has a regulation beach sand volleyball court and six regulation washer courts. And in June each year it is possible to pick blackberries onsite. (Mainstay Farm 900 W. Bethesda Rd. Cleburne, TX 76031. (817) 295-6772 or
www.mainstayfarm.com)
Arlington: River Legacy Parks - After Dark in the Park (10/07- 10/09, and 15, 2011). This four-day fall festival is ideal for families with children ages 2 to 12. The event highlights the River Legacy Living Science Center's ongoing educational programs and provides oodles of unique activities meant to be shared. In addition to a creative craft area for children there is also storytelling under the stars, many games, and a pumpkin patch plus escorted night hikes and hayrides. Always popular, the bounce houses will delight and there will be an opportunity to sing Karaoke.
Best part: Even when the festival is over there are plenty of great programs for families to enjoy including free story time each Saturday and many special guided walks ideal to share with kids. (River Legacy Living Science Center 703 N.W. Green Oaks Blvd. (at Cooper Street) Arlington, TX 76006. (817) 860-6752 or visit
www.riverlegacy.org)
Grapevine: The Hall's Pumpkin Festive Fall Days (09/30 – 10/31, 2011). Start with the corn maze with pathways and dead ends spanning almost two acres. The maze by day is fun but Halls also invites visitors to navigate by flashlight or for a greater challenge night light. Children younger than three years of age are always admitted for free. Fun includes a ride on a hay-filled tractor pulled wagon and a chance to select the perfect pumpkin.
Best part: All ages love to meet and sometimes feed resident farm animals - curious goats, snarky donkeys, and lazy cows.
Bonus points: Jump in a haystack or snap pictures with scarecrows and chill in the country watching cows graze in the pasture un phased by airplanes overhead on approach to DFW. (Hall Farm 3420Hall Johnson Road, Grapevine, TX 76051. (817) 991-1052 or
www.hallspumpkinfarm.net)
Brookshire: Texas Maze at Dewberry Farm (09/24/2011–11/22/2011). Dewberry Farm shares its love of seasonal corn mazes with a series of family friendly events including duck races, goat walks, pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving, a barrel train, hay rides, a sunflower patch and corn cannons. Toast marshmallows, yodel a cowboy tune or play your harmonica. On Saturday nights take a hayride through Pumpkin Hollow to see carved pumpkins glowing in the twilight. For kids seven and younger there is Little Farmsville where little ones can ride a trike around "Pedaler's Avenue", and rock on old-fashioned spring horses.
Best part: Do the MAiZE on a Saturday nights and feel how eerie corn stalks can be. Bonus points: See the Dewberry Farm honey bees at work. Learn about their honey making process and how pollination plays an important role in farming. (Dewberry Farm Seven miles north of Brookshire on FM 362. Toll-free 866-908-FARM (3276), (281) 934-3276 or
www.texasmaze.com)
Houston: 45th Annual Original Greek Festival (10/6/2011 – 10/9/2011). Be Greek for a day at the annual Greek Festival in Houston, Texas. Highlights of the festival include cathedral tours, displays of religious icons/artifacts, Greek folk dancing and delicious Greek specialties prepared from recipes handed down generation to generation for more than a century. Best part: Attendees can also purchase Greek food to take home at the Agora Greek Food Store and buy videos, CDs, and tapes of Greek music, dancing and culture to help keep the “OPA!” spirit alive all year long.
Bonus points: For 2011 the festival grounds several activities specifically for children have grown in number and include an Athenian playground and the Annunciation Orthodox School Exhibit. (Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral complex, 3511 Yoakum Boulevard, Houston. (713) 526-5377 or
www.greekfestival.org)
San Antonio: Devine Acres Pumpkin Extravaganza (10/03/2011–10/30/2011). Located outside of San Antonio, Devine Acres is the host to the annual Pumpkin Extravaganza featuring scenic hayrides, catch-n-release fishing, a barrel train ride, duck races, hay bale & rope mazes, scarecrow dressing, and a petting zoo.
Best part: On site is a new mining sluice created so that visitors can try their luck at gemstone mining and maybe even take home a new treasure. (Devine Acres 944 FM 2200 West, Devine 78016. (830) 665-9730 or
www.devineacres.com)
For more corn mazes and fall festivals in the US Southwest
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We want to expand the list and need your help. If you have a favorite fall festival or know of an awesome corn maze please "Tell Mom" and we will add it to the list. Make sure to include the name of the festival or event and its location on the planet as well as why you like it or what makes it worth the trip Our next round up will include family-friendly winter celebrations and enchanting Santa Trains. We are building the list right now and would love to have your feedback. So just "Tell Mom!".
Content researched and verified by FTF staff. Images provided by respective locations. Copyright 2011.
