New adventure awaits you and your family around every unknown corner of the labyrinth that is the Calgary Corn Maze.
The Calgary Corn Maze and Fun Farm is located 25 minutes from Okotoks on the eastern outskirts of Calgary and hold a day of fun for everyone.
Mark Muchka started the Calgary Corn Maze and Fun Farm with his wife Deanna in 2008 and like a good crop of corn it has grown significantly ever since.
Muchka said starting the corn maze was a perfect opportunity to be close to home and do what they love.
“It really got started because we wanted to be closer to our family,” said Muchka. “We were living in Edmonton, but I’m from around Calgary and my wife is from Southern Alberta and we needed a reason to get close to home.”
Both Mark and Deanna grew up with farming backgrounds, love children, interacting with new people and teaching others about agriculture.
“We really love people and we love the outdoors, so this just seemed like a natural fit for us,” said Muchka.
He said their fun farm has added many new attractions and has developed into an agricultural amusement park in the past years.
“The very first year we opened we were kind of just a corn maze in the middle of a field, a little petting zoo and that was it,” said Muchka. “But now we have a lot of things that are unique and different and it’s a great place to learn about agriculture.”
With a corn maze the size of 10 football fields, it is the biggest of its kind in Alberta and every year it takes on a new design to challenge anyone who tries to solve it.
This year Muchka designed the corn maze as a knight riding on a horse with a castle surrounding it and the words “conquer cancer” in the top.
“Every year we pick a different charity to work with because we think it’s important to be involved with the community,” said Muchka. “It’s close to home for us because we have relatives and friends with cancer so we felt it was a really timely charity.”
The Muchkas will be donating money to a few different cancer organizations including the Canadian Cancer Society.
If you don’t feel like taking on the giant corn maze, there is also a smaller corn maze to attempt as a warm-up for the bigger maze.
“When people come out they are looking for something fun and affordable and we provide that along with something educational,” said Muchka.
As a popular summer and fall destination in the city and area, Muchka said he is always looking for new attractions to add every year.
“We just added an animatronics chicken show and we have these giant jumping pillows that are pretty popular. We also have a gem stone sluice where people can find and dig for fossils,” said Muchka.
The pig races are also a unique and popular feature at the Calgary Corn Maze.
“We have a whole barnyard petting zoo, so we train our pigs to race for cookies,” said Muchka. “Visitors can come and watch the pigs race around the track and at the end the pigs have a little treat waiting for them.”
The Calgary Corn Maze and Fun Farm is open from the end of July until mid-October for people to pick their own pumpkins for Halloween.
Whether it’s digging for fossils, watching the pig races or petting a baby goat, the Calgary Corn Maze will certainly provide a full day of entertainment and fun for the whole family.
The Calgary Corn Maze and Fun Farm is located on Township Road 224 just east of Calgary. For more information please visit www.calgarycornmaze.com or call Mark Muchka at 403-648-2719.
