Think of Colorado as ground zero for mazes. It’s hard to imagine there’s a place with a better choice of mazes and labyrinths.
Beginning with labyrinths, one website (labyrinthlocator.com) gives photos, addresses, descriptions and sometimes even websites for 120 labyrinths in Colorado. Many are on private property. When that’s the case, labyrinthlocator.com often gives the owner’s telephone number for visitors to call before visiting.
Corn mazes are not to be missed come autumn. From Wellington to Wiggins, New Castle to Ovid, Colorado has some of the finest corn mazes in the country. Appropriately, Anderson Farms near Erie warns visitors not to try to find their way to the Anderson Farms with Google, which “WILL get you lost.” Fritzler Corn Maze near La Salle welcomed 350,000 visitors last fall to its enormous maze.
Then there’s the Stanley Hotel’s baby maze. Author Stephen King stayed at the Stanley and got the idea for one of the scariest books of all time, The Shining. The book didn’t feature a maze, but the equally terrifying film did. Visitors to the Stanley who knew the film’s Overlook Hotel was based on the Stanley were inevitably disappointed to learn the real hotel never had a maze.
In a case of life imitating art, the Stanley’s owner decided the hotel needed a maze, and in February 2015 the hotel announced the winner of a contest to design one. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony last summer. Don’t expect to get lost in that maze’s paths; the shrubbery is still growing.
Lastly, there are nine Greg Gallavan-built Amaze’n Mazes in Colorado:
• Amaze’n Breckenridge, built in 1990,
• Amaze’n Winter Park, 1994,
• Amaze’n Steamboat Fun Park, 1996,
• Amaze’n Gateway, Boulder, 1997,
• Amaze’n Durango Mountain Resort, 2001,
• Amaze’n Funputter Park, Pueblo, 2002,
• Fort Where-Am-I Maze, Glenwood Springs, 2008,
• Mineshaft Maze, Breckenridge, 2010,
• Amaze n Maze, Miners Maze Adventureland, Hyland Hills in Westminster, reopening this summer after relocating from Golden, where it opened in 2010.