Want to get lost in the corn maze craze this autumn?

Enjoying the crisp air, colorful leaves and harvest festivals is an annual rite of autumn; and people have come up with many fall activities over the years to help get out and make the most of the season.

Folks used to simply gather together and go for a hayride as part of their autumnal celebrations. As kids, we would throw a bunch of hay in the back of a pickup truck and ride around the farm before topping the evening off with s’mores around a campfire. More recently, hayrides continued to be popular, but they were something you did with the kids in addition to spending a day at the pumpkin patch or picking apples in an orchard.

The 21^st century fall festivity of choice seems to be the corn mazes that have grown wildly popular over the past few years — so popular that many of those pumpkin farms and orchards have added a maze to give tourists added incentive to visit.

Today, you can find more than 600 corn mazes popping up along the North American landscape, from Edmonton, Alberta to Ellijay, Ga. Many of the maize mazes have different themes each year and the cost of admission often includes other outdoor activities designed for all ages — like the hayrides, campfires and s’mores of yore. Some places encourage more challenging flashlight journeys through the maze at night for older kids and adults.

The size and scope of each maze varies, but they are usually several acres large. Farmers and maze designers often plant their cornfields and employ the use of Global Positioning Systems to map the designs before tractors plow the paths through the corn. The largest official corn maze (at more than 40 acres) is in Dixon, Calif., but a Nebraska farmer is looking to break that Guinness Book record this year with his 54-acre maze.

Many friends and neighbors in our north metro community head up the road to Dawsonville to Uncle Shuck’s Maze or the North Georgia Corn Maze in Cleveland. Both sites make for an easy day trip, but they are by no means the only mazes around.

In the Southeast, you can wind your way through the rows of corn in more than 75 mazes. Georgia alone has at least 15. While Tennessee appears to be the corn maze king of the region, with its 31 maize patterns, you will find plenty of places to get lost amongst the shucks in Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina too.

Have you succumbed to the corn maze craze? Where are your favorite mazes? Where else do you like to travel in the region for fall activities?