cool patch pumpkins

I have been to this place for a few years in a row since I am a local. There are tons of pumpkins to choose from. There are a lot of things to see in the way of pumpkin art and plenty of photo ops for the kids. There are wagons and carts you can pull around to put your pumpkins and kids in. Prepare to walk a lot. This place is great for kids of all ages. It is more than just a pumpkin patch. You can even get rid of the older kids for a few hours while they try the corn maze out. Bring water for your group just in case. Last year the refreshment stand was not opened when I was there with the grandkids. The cost was secondary. I don't even remember what it was because the kids were having tons of fun which meant I was having a good time too.

First off, there is a great selection of pumpkins, gourds, squashes, and baking pumpkins. Their prices are astoundingly low.The maze itself is somewhat to pretty difficult but quite do-able if you figure out where you'll be going by filling out the map they give you when you buy your tickets. You'll do best if someone in your party is good at directions and maps. It seems like kids are really great at finding their way, so you might follow them. Plan on at least 11/2 hours - probably 2 if you want to do the whole maze.If you go on a sunny day, I suggest a hat, sunscreen and water carried in a day pack.The maze is well designed for almost getting lost, but isn't that what mazes are for? Don't pick the corn because it is only animal feed. Make certain you go to the bathroom before entering the maze, and be aware that the paths are over uneven, lumpy terrain, so wear comfortable shoes.Be patient with yourself and enjoy.

I have been bringing my son & his friends here for 7 years. This year I was sorely disappointed. The price to take the kids into the fun zone was fine - $5.00. But I find it ridiculous that I had to have a wristband also to go in & watch the kids. Would they rather I stay out in the main area & not supervise the kids? Also - every year the pedal bikes are in worse shape. The patch was virtually empty today but there are only 4 pedal bikes in sight. Of those 2 have no pedals & one has a steering wheel that doesn't work. So much for the boys riding together. This is definitely off my list.

Both for a fun weekend outing and annual kids' class trips, Cool Patch has a lot to do for lots of kids!

What a pumpkin patch! So much to do it's easy to spend a whole day here. Kids ADORED the corn pool and we had a great time on the bike carts. fun, fun, fun

We are so lucky to live nearby. Every October we take the kids to enjoy pumpkin-picking and the a few hours lost in the maze. I definitely recommend taking bottled water into the maze with you, especially on hot days. For those with port-a-potty phobia, use the restroom before you go!

--- Maze notes --- (see below for pumpkin notes)My family went to the corn maze at Cool Patch Pumkins. We had a fabulous time! It was our first time at a corn maze, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The maze was cut into this huge corn field. (I think I read that it’s 45 acres!) The corn is tall enough that you can’t see over it, so your view is limited to the current little piece of the maze where you are walking. It was a sunny day, so we could keep our general sense of direction, but that doesn’t help you much with respect to solving the maze because sometimes you need to go South in order to ultimately get back North again.They gave us a map, but I decided we should just put the map in our pocket an walk around at random for a while. That was interesting, but not very productive. We were quickly very lost (which was part of the point), but after a while it was clear that we weren’t actually getting anywhere. The maze has a very specific goal. You need to get from the start to the finish, and along the way there are a few places where you can go up on a platform and look down at the corn field.I was expecting that there would be many different ways to get through the maze, so if you wander around enough, you’ll generally end up getting to the other end. That’s not the case. There is only ONE way through the maze. And like any good maze, you need to head way over to one side, then back to the other side, then up to the top, etc. They did a good job of using the whole corn field, and like I said, there was truly just one way to get through. In several places, there was only one path connecting large sections of the maze together, and if you didn’t go down that path you would never get to the other end.The best approach is to bring a pen and solve the maze on the paper map before you head into the maze. Then as you go through the maze, keep track of where you are, and stay on the route you marked. We didn’t do that. Like I said before, we wandered at random for a while until it became obvious that we weren’t going to get to the finish that way. Then I pulled out the map and studied it. That’s when I discovered that there’s only one way to solve the maze, and we needed to be on that specific route. I didn’t think to bring a pen, so I had to solve the maze in sections at a time in my head, and keep studying the map to re-find the route. It was pretty challenging. Definitely bring a pen!All the corn stalks look alike, so orienting yourself on the map would be impossible except that they did an excellent job of marking the trails with little signs. The map is laid-out in a grid, and the signs tell you where you are on the grid. So, as you walk up to an intersection (or dead end), a little sign will tell you that you are at C17. So, you look on the map and find C17. Then you just need to orient yourself to see which way you are facing, and you’re good to go.By the way, this is an excellent way to teach kids about reading a map. My son is 12, and he’s growing up in an age where GPS navigators guide you through life with amazing accuracy. His map reading skills are pretty weak. This was a great opportunity for him to learn!!So, my main recommendation is to bring a pen and solve the maze on paper before you start. Another tip would be to go early in the season when they first open. The maze had been open for many weeks before we went, and while it was still very fun, I could see how the experience would be better right after the maze opened. Near the start of the maze, there were a lot of places where people had taken shortcuts through the corn, and created new “cheater paths”. I believe those were probably people who couldn’t figure out how to do it correctly and had to bail back to the start by any means possible. It was easy to simply avoid taking the cheater paths, but that did mess with the experience a little.Another reason to go early in the season is related to the later sections of the maze. By the time we got about half way through the maze, it was obvious that the only way you would get that far was by successfully navigating with the map. So everyone in the last half of the maze is using the map and going exactly where they need to go. This means that everyone is walking on the same correct path, and the wrong paths aren’t getting any traffic. The result is that you can sort of figure out where you are supposed to go, just by seeing which path shows the most signs of traffic. The dirt is more packed down and smoother. The farther we got into the maze, the more this was apparent. By the end, we didn’t even need the map. We were just following the most-worn path, which partly defeats the purpose. Having said that, you should still go even if it’s later in the season. It’s still a lot of fun. Honestly, by the time you get that far through the maze, you have already gotten plenty of the maze-navigation experience.Also, try to go when there aren’t a lot of people. I’m guessing early in the day, or closer to the end of the day. When there are too many people, you end up just following someone. As I said, in the second half of the maze everyone is successfully using the map. So, if you see other people, they are undoubtedly going the right way. You can get into a situation where you are simply following another group, and not doing any navigating yourself. That’s not as fun. Many times we just stopped to let the other group get out of sight before we continued. The more crowded it is, the more this would be a factor. The best approach is to go when there are as few other people as possible!The maze is open after dark. Next year we might go in the evening so we can experience the maze in the dark. I’m sure it’s a completely different experience! It sounds like fun, and going in the dark would probably help with the other issues of avoiding people and not seeing which path is the most worn. Obviously, headlamps would be the best gear for the job, although a simple flashlight would be OK.Actually, next year I might drive over to that area the night before and stay at a hotel. That way, we could do the maze at night in the dark, and then again first thing in the morning!Note that there weren’t any bathrooms in the corn, so “go before you go”, if you know what I mean. (There are porta-potties outside the maze.) I think you should plan on being in the maze for a couple of hours. If you are really good with a map and you didn’t wander around aimlessly like we did at first, you could probably do the maze in less than 2 hours, but I don’t know that for sure. That’s just a guess.--- Pumpkin notes ---After doing the maze, we did the pumpkin patch part of the experience. This is a great place to get your pumpkins!! I recommend doing the little hay-ride around the patch, just so you know where you want to go when you pick your pumpkin. The patch is huge, and there are thousands of pumpkins of all different size, shapes, and colors. Different kinds are grown in different sections, so the hay ride gives you a nice overview.After the hay ride, find a wagon and head out in search of your pumpkins. You’ll be actually cutting the pumpkin off the plant, so bringing a knife would be smart. I just used a sharp key and did some twisting. It worked, but I wished I had a knife! Also, the pumpkin plant is very prickly, so a pair of gloves would be good, too. As I said before, there are many different kinds of pumpkins. I saw orange, white, green, big, small, smooth, bumpy, mutated, twisted, and just about any pumpkin variety you could imagine. My son got one that looked like a swan, with a big body below and a long swooping neck above. (Not sure that’s even a “pumpkin”, but whatever.) My wife got a white one, and I got a massive orange one. It was really cool being able to pick out our pumpkins from all these thousands of choices. Also, the pumpkins were really cheap compared to what I normally pay at a city “pumpkin patch” or grocery store. I’ll definitely be getting all my pumpkins here from now on!