aMAIZEing Night-O: Northeastern Ohio Orienteering Club's Fun Night at Szalay’s Corn Maze!

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Come out and test your orienteering skills (but mostly having FUN!) in a venue that’s INTENDED to CONFUSE and CONFOUND. And it’s at NIGHT!

Costumes encouraged!
. . .
Event format will be Classic Orienteering– each control must be visited in the order designated by the course chosen
Place: Corn maze at Szalay’s Farm and Market, 4563 Riverview Rd, Peninsula, 44264
The evening of the 25th will only have a setting crescent MOON, so be sure to bring your headlamp or flashlight with fresh batteries. If you become hopelessly lost, sink to the ground a have a good cry. We will probably find you when we collect the control flags. It’s OK to ask small children for directions.

The original, Classic Orienteering format is a timed race in which individual participants use a specially created, highly detailed map to complete a course by selecting routes and navigating through diverse and often unfamiliar terrain and visit Control Points in sequence.
. . .
Mostly importantly, an Orienteering course can simply be enjoyed as a walk in the woods, at your own pace, with difficulty levels from beginner to expert offered at most events.

On Saturday, October 25, 2025, our family attended the annual aMAIZEing Night-O. Our family recommends the corn maze at Szalay's Farm & Market! It is excellent!!! And, we HIGHLY recommend walking the corn maze at the annual NIGHT orienteering event with the Northeastern Ohio Orienteering Club (NEOOC)! If you want to attend a future NEOOC orienteering event, they are open to all!

 

 

Enjoying the Fun Atmosphere and Dinner at Szalay's Farm & Market

Our Family Farm
Szalay’s Farm began in 1931 as a vegetable farm. Now after 94 years and four generations, Szalay’s Farm has changed into a specialized sweet corn farm and an old-fashion farm market that offers a wide variety of fruits and veggies fresh from the fields. There is also an abundance of delicious local homemade goodies. We invite you to stroll through the market and discover the tasty things we have to offer.

Voted Akron’s Best Farm Market and one of N.E. Ohio’s Top 100 Destinations!

Our family thanks everyone for their support!

Weekend Eatery

Our Three Outdoor Huts

We offer delicious fresh food prepared in an outdoor eating area.

Hours
10:30 A.M. – 7:00 P.M.

Open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: June 6th to September 1st (Labor Day)
Open Saturday and Sunday: September 6th to October 31st

Grilled Sandwiches…
Deli Dogs, Salmon, Turkey Burgers, Sausage, and Pork Loin Sandwiches

Roasted Corn on the Cob

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade & Sweet Tea

Delicious Fresh Fruit Sundaes

Ice Cream Cones

Last year and this year, we made a point of arriving early, before the NEOOC orienteering event, to take in the fun atmosphere of Szalay's Farm & Market. We purchased dinner (note that the food service booths only take cash for purchases), and sat at a swinging picnic table. After dinner, we enjoyed seeing this beautiful display of produce, and -- special this time of year -- the Halloween decorations. Since we stayed until dark, we were able to see the care the employees took in putting away the produce display for the night.

We recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to look more closely at the Halloween and produce displays in the slides!!

 

 

aMAIZEing Night-O - Finding Your Way Using a Map -- in the Dark -- in a Maze!!

Fall Fun On The Farm

Our corn maze now includes a trip though the SPINNING BARN.

A Challenging Corn Maze…
The Szalay family invites you, your family and friends to experience the farm in the fall. We have a decorated three acre corn maze that is a bit challenging. Find all eight wooden pumpkins and your way out of the maze. Our corn maze takes approximately 30 minutes to walk through and it will give you a chance to test your navigational skills. Don’t fret; we will give you a map (cheat sheet) of the maze. Our maze is theme designed from ghosts & goblins to dinosaurs & pirates with an aerial photo for you to see. Don’t forget your camera; there are plenty of photo opportunities. This will provide your family and friends with memories to last a life time.

When does it open? The corn maze is open September 13th to October 31st. It is open every day from 10 am until 7 pm.

Admission
Admission is $6 for the maze and a trip through the Spinning Barn — Except kids 3 and under are FREE

Other Fall Things…
Pumpkins of every shape and size, Gourds, Indian Corn, Corn Stalks, Straw Bales, Critter Corn, Fresh Chestnuts, Local Honey, Maple Syrup, Home Grown Apples, Fresh Pressed Cider and Much More……

Three courses will be available: do one, two or all three!
Dragon Claw – Start at the Entrance – ~1 km – 15 controls
Dragon Fire – Start at the Exit – ~1 km – 15 controls
For fun – find and admire the eight numbered pumpkins located at the creepy, scary displays hidden in the maze.

This is intended to be a fun event – with focus on the family/kids.

The maze is not normally open to the general public during the evening, so it was special for the Northeastern Ohio Orienteering Club members to be able to navigate the maze in the dark!! If you want to attend a future NEOOC night orienteering event, just bring a flashlights and have basic knowledge of how to read a map. (Preregistration is $11, or $15 to walk up just before the start time.)

The goal is to find all the controls (orange and white markers) shown on the official map in the correct order, and check in using an electronic punching system that the club provides. We enjoyed completing the Dragon Claw route through the maze so much that we entered the maze a second time to find all the movie-inspired, spooky Halloween displays.

We were told by one of the NEOOC event organizers that Mrs. Szalay spends all winter designing these special displays each year. Our sons, Kevin and Michael, after passing us on the Dragon Claw orienteering course, then completed the Dragon Fire route. Night orienteering in the dark, in a maze, is a fun way to spend an evening!

After we completed the maze twice, we all went into the Spinning Barn -- a fluorescent-painted, spinning tunnel illuminated with black light. This particular night, it was not turning, but the white items on us (including our teeth!) took on an interesting glow!

We recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.
Please feel free to pause the video to look more closely at the Halloween displays in the slides!!

 

 

Related Blog Posts

We always like to include in our blog posts a list of related posts that may be of interest to our readers. Here are our past blog posts about Northeast Ohio Orienteering Club events:

• Blog Date: February 15, 2024 - Six Days: Ten Cleveland Metroparks and Orienteering in Geauga Park District

  In total, I hiked five days on 14 trails in ten reservations . . . attending a Northeastern Ohio Orienteering Club event where they had developed a new map for the Geauga Park District's The West Woods.

• Blog Date: June 27, 2022 - 2 of 3: Fun Father's Day Weekend: Saturday -- Service Project & The Longest Day of Play
  Read about the Northeast Ohio Orienteering Club service project at the Richfield Heritage Preserve.

If you are interesting in outdoor activities like orienteering, then you might also like our blog posts in the following categories:

• "Backpacking" - 9 blog posts.

• "Bike" - 27 blog posts.

• "Buckeye Trail" - 25 blog posts.

• "Hike" - 32 blog posts and will overlap with the "Backpacking" and "Buckeye Trail" blog posts.

 

Thank you for reading our blog post. You can learn about our travel journeys and the venues we explore in Cleveland and Akron at: sosAssociates.com/Blog