About How to Do Fall Around DC
Make the most of autumn activities with these ideas for a fun-filled fall. Check out colorful foliage, corn mazes, haunted houses, pumpkin patches, and more.
Cox Farms
15621 Braddock Rd., Centreville
This farm’s annual fall festival also includes giant slides, a goat village, and a market full of doughnuts, apples, and pies. Their maze, Cornundrum, claims to have hidden surprises amid the rows of corn, including elephants and pirates. The admission fee varies by day of the week, from $7 to $20. Open September 21 through November 5.
The Corn Maze in the Plains
4501 Old Tavern Rd., the Plains, Va.
Past themes at the Corn Maze in the Plains have played off puns; this year, the family-friendly farm is carrying on tradition and celebrating “20 Ears” of corn-filled fun. Each night after 5 p.m., they will light a campfire, roasts s’mores, and open up the maze so visitors can wander through it beneath the stars. The fall festival opens September 28 and lasts through November 3 ($12 per adult; $11 for children ages 3 to 12; kids 3 and under are free).
Bowles Farm
22880 Budds Creek Rd., Clements, Md.
Bowles Farm always carves its maze into clever themes (like last year’s Caps’ Stanley Cup). This year, the farm says it is going back to why the business started: family fun. Most of the activities this year have been geared towards families with young kids, including a play area, barrel rides, and face painting. Visitors can wander through the words “Family Fun” in the maze, as well as a scarecrow’s smile. Admission is $10 a person, with children 3 and under free. The maze will be open for five weekends starting September 28.
Wayside Farm
5273 Harry Byrd Hwy., Berryville, Va.
Wayside Farm has carved SpongeBob SquarePants into its field this year. The farm also has an array of animals to see, including goats that perch on catwalks 20 feet in the air and a donkey whose birthday warrants her own bash on the festival’s opening day. The fall festival will be open on weekends beginning September 21 ($12 a person; group discounts).
Winterbrook Farms
13001 Creagerstown Rd., Thurmont, Md.
Winterbrook Farms has designed the largest corn maze in Maryland, for a cause. The farm says it carved grazing cows, a glass of milk, and a catchphrase reminiscent of the classic “Got Milk” campaign to raise awareness of struggling U.S. dairy farmers. Make it through all of the 18 checkpoints in the 15-acre maze to get to the fresh kettle corn and the jumping pumpkin pillow on the other side. The maze opens on September 21 and runs through November 3 ($10 a person).
Belvedere Plantation
1410 Belvedere Dr., Fredericksburg, Va.
Everyone’s seen Instagram photos of sunflower fields and felt the FOMO. Now, during the last two weekends of September, you can attend a sunflower festival at Belvedere Plantation in addition to its harvest festival, which will be full of slides, trampolines, and pig races. The farm’s Maize Maze celebrates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. The harvest festival runs September 21 through November 3 ($12.95 for weekends and $9.95 for weekdays; prices for events vary).
Liberty Hills Farm
9166 Liberty Mills Rd., Somerset, Va.
It’s a couple hours’ drive to get to what is billed as the largest corn maze in Virginia. Once there, you can wind your way through the 33-acre maze, pick strawberries and pumpkins, and admire the antique tractor collection. This year’s maze commemorates the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, with a giant footprint and the phrase “One Small Step.” Admission is $12 and includes all four maze trails, a hay wagon ride, and access to the activities area, which features a climbable straw “mountain” and corn hole. The maze opens September 7 and runs through November 11.
Emily Martin is an editorial fellow for Washingtonian. She previously participated in the POLITICO Journalism Institute and covered Capitol Hill for The Durango Herald.
