Corn mazes offer puzzling family fun

There’s no way to say this without indulging in a few cliches: It’s time to get lost and get corny. It’s time to be a-mazed.

The Amazing Corn Maze is open for business. You can enjoy the fun of getting lost in an Idaho cornfield and finding your way out through Nov. 6. During the week of Halloween you can even visit a haunted maze — all for one low price.

The maze has been a Spokane Valley fixture the past six autumns. Zoning restrictions require that it find a new cornfield every year, and this year’s rotation has seen the cornrow puzzler moved across the border, taking up residence near the Stateline Speedway.

The layout includes five miles of paths through three different mazes, with a food court, petting zoo, family area with a bounce castle for the youngsters, and other extras to provide daylong fun for the whole family. The giant puzzle is lighted, so the fun doesn’t have to stop when the sun goes down.

The maze is open Thursday through Sunday: Thursdays from 4 to 10 p.m., Fridays from 4 p.m. to midnight, Saturdays from 10 a.m. to midnight, and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free for children 4 and under. Children ages 5 through 12 get in for $4, and kids 13 and older (and that includes mom and dad) get in for $6. A donation of two nonperishable food items earns a $1 discount on Sunday.

The week of Halloween one of the mazes will be haunted — and the designers are quick to point out that their aim is to scare dad. Scaring the kids is easy, they say. Scaring dad takes some imagination.

Finding the maze is easier than finding your way out of it: Take Interstate 90 east to Exit 299. Head east to Stateline Village, then turn north on Beck Road a mile past the Stateline Speedway sign.