Corn Mazes Near El Cajon, CA
The corn maze closest to El Cajon is at Summers Past Farms in Flinn Springs, and it costs nothing: a small maze cut for children, part of the farm's October pumpkin season. For a maze a grown-up could actually get turned around in, the nearest is Mountain Valley Ranch in Ramona, two acres of hand-planted corn with free entry, opening September 26, 2026.
Size grows with the drive. The two big mazes are Carlsbad Strawberry Company's 1.5 miles of trail and Big Horse Corn Maze's 11-plus acres in Temecula, and both charge at the gate. The other four let you in free, and most sell the maze and rides by the ticket, which keeps a quick visit with a four-year-old cheap.
Our picks
- Best for toddlers and preschoolers: Summers Past Farms. Free entry, a small maze cut for young children with a hay fort beside it, and the shortest drive from El Cajon.
- A proper maze without a gate fee: Mountain Valley Ranch. Two hand-planted acres in Ramona, with a corn cannon and a petting zoo open every day and nothing to pay to get in.
- Coming from the South Bay: Bonita Pumpkin Farm. On Sweetwater Road, free to park and enter, with $5 tickets for the eight-foot maze and sunflower rows you can cut from.
- Best for teenagers after dark: Carlsbad Strawberry Company Pumpkin Patch. The only haunted maze on the list, run on Friday and Saturday evenings in October alongside 1.5 miles of daytime trail.
- When the maze is the whole point: Big Horse Corn Maze. Over 11 acres, billed by the Temecula tourism board as the largest corn maze in Southern California, for $20 a head.
At a glance
| Option | Corn Maze Price | Address | Farm Admission | Maze Size | 2026 Season | Also On The Farm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freesource | 15602 Olde Highway 80, Flinn Springs, CA 92021source | Freesource | A small maze cut for childrensource | The month of Octobersource | Pick-your-own field-grown pumpkinssource | |
| 842 Highway 78, Ramona, CA 92065source | Freesource | 2 acres, hand-plantedsource | Opens September 26, 2026source | Corn cannon and petting zoo, open every daysource | ||
| $5source | 5354 Sweetwater Rd, Bonita, CA 91902source | Freesource | Corn grown eight feet tallsource | September 25 to October 31source | Sunflower fields, pumpkin patch, tractor ride and petting zoosource | |
| $5source | 13421 Highland Valley Road, Escondido, CA 92128source | Freesource | Corn grown eight feet tallsource | September 25 to October 31source | Sunflower fields and a hay ride through the Christmas tree farmsource | |
| $10source | 1050 Cannon Rd, Carlsbad, CA 92008source | Paidsource | 1.5 miles of trailsource | September 14 to November 8source | Tractor ride, farm animals and a haunted corn maze on October weekendssource | |
| $20source | 33320 Temecula Parkway, Temecula, CA 92592source | Paidsource | Over 11 acressource | Giant inflatable bounce houses, slides and obstacle coursessource |
How big each corn maze is
The farms measure their mazes in different units, so the Maze Size column can't be sorted, but the ladder is clear. Summers Past Farms cuts a small maze for children. Mountain Valley Ranch plants two acres by hand. The two Pumpkin Station farms, Bonita and Rancho Bernardo, describe theirs by height: corn grown eight feet tall. Carlsbad Strawberry Company gives a mile and a half of trail, and Big Horse Corn Maze runs to over 11 acres.
Daylight matters at some of them. Rancho Bernardo closes its maze at 6pm even when the patch stays open later, because the field has no lights, and Big Horse charges more after 5pm.
Free gate or paid gate: what a family spends
Four farms charge nothing to get in. At Bonita and Rancho Bernardo every attraction, the maze included, is a $5 ticket. Summers Past publishes no maze charge at all, which is why its price reads 0. Mountain Valley Ranch lists the maze but never prices it, so that cell is empty and the ranch is a place to bring cash.
The two paid farms work differently from each other. Carlsbad charges admission per person ($20 on weekdays and $25 Friday through Sunday, $20 flat in September) and then $10 more for the maze, with the tractor ride and animals extra again. Big Horse's $20 is the gate price itself and covers the maze, the bounce houses and the rest of the harvest festival, so the Temecula trip can cost less per head than Carlsbad once you're inside.
Opening dates for the 2026 season
Of the farms with 2026 dates, Carlsbad Strawberry Company opens first and closes last, September 14 to November 8. Both Pumpkin Station farms run September 25 to October 31, Mountain Valley Ranch opens September 26, and Summers Past keeps to the month of October (the farm is closed Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for much of the year, so check its days). Big Horse had posted no 2026 dates when this page was built in early September, and its own website was offline, so check before making the hour's drive up the I-15.
The options in detail
Summers Past Farms
A herb farm, nursery and gift shop in the East County foothills at Flinn Springs, and the closest of these to El Cajon. Every October it turns its field over to pick-your-own pumpkins, and the corn maze is deliberately small: it is cut for young children to run through rather than to get properly lost in, with a hay fort beside it. Admission is free, so it is the low-commitment option if you want an hour of pumpkin-patch atmosphere rather than a paid day out. The trade-off is scale, and the farm is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for much of the year.
Mountain Valley Ranch
A working ranch on Highway 78 in Ramona that has run a pumpkin patch every autumn for nearly thirty years, and the nearest thing to a proper farm maze in the eastern half of the county. The corn maze is two acres and hand-planted, and it shares the field with a corn cannon, a petting zoo, pony rides and weekend hayrides. Getting in is free and the activities are pay-as-you-go, which makes it easy to keep a visit short. The one gap is that the ranch does not publish what the maze itself costs, so take cash and expect a few dollars a head.
Bonita Pumpkin Farm
One of the two real farm sites Pumpkin Station runs in San Diego County, on the corner of Sweetwater and Bonita Road in the South Bay. It is a living pumpkin field rather than a lot full of trucked-in pumpkins, with a corn maze grown eight feet tall, sunflower rows you can cut from, a tractor hay-wagon, a train ride and a petting zoo. Parking and entry are free and each attraction is a five-dollar ticket, so a family can spend as little or as much as it likes. It is the easiest of these to reach if you are coming from the south or west rather than out of East County.
Rancho Bernardo Pumpkin Farm
Pumpkin Station's North County farm, off Highland Valley Road just east of the I-15, and the one most locals mean when they say Rancho Bernardo pumpkin patch. The eight-foot corn maze sits next to sunflower fields that bloom through October, and the hay-wagon ride runs out through the family's Christmas tree fields. Entry and parking are free with five-dollar tickets per attraction, and the maze closes at 6pm even when the patch stays open later, because there is no light in the field. Worth knowing that it is a fair drive north from El Cajon, up the 67 or the 15.
Carlsbad Strawberry Company Pumpkin Patch
The strawberry farm beside Agua Hedionda Lagoon becomes a full fall festival from mid-September, and its corn maze is the longest on this list at a mile and a half of trail. It is the only one here with a haunted night maze as well, run with the lagoon foundation on Friday and Saturday evenings in October and aimed squarely at teenagers and adults rather than small children. The catch is that it is also the most expensive way in: admission is charged per person and the maze, the tractor ride and the animals are all extra on top. It runs the longest season of the six, into early November.
Big Horse Corn Maze
The furthest of these and the biggest by a wide margin: eleven-plus acres cut into the field behind Big Horse Feed & Mercantile on Temecula Parkway, which the Temecula tourism board calls the largest corn maze in Southern California. It is the answer San Diegans give each other when someone asks where a serious maze is, and the one worth the hour in the car if the maze itself is the point rather than the pumpkins. Entry is a single per-person price that covers the maze, the jumpers and the rest of the harvest festival, and it is dearer after 5pm. One caveat: when this page was researched in early September 2026 the farm's own website was offline and it had not posted its 2026 dates, so check before driving up.
How we researched this
The test for a spot on this page was a maze grown from corn. That ruled out the two patches most San Diegans name first: Bates Nut Farm's maze is straw and Oma's Family Farm has a hay maze and a corn pit, whatever the roundup lists say. Family Christmas Tree Farm in El Cajon has a hay maze. Peltzer Pumpkin Farm in Temecula has cut a corn maze in past years, but its 2026 attractions page lists none, and Wholesome Heritage Farm in Escondido appears only in a directory, with no site of its own and no 2026 confirmation. Live Oak Canyon in Yucaipa has a real corn maze but sits about 95 miles away. What remains is small because the category is small.
Big Horse's address and price are cited to outside pages (Visit Temecula Valley and a Ventura County parenting guide), because the farm's site returned an under-construction page on September 8, 2026. Its season cell and Mountain Valley Ranch's maze price are empty because nothing citable stated them. Pumpkin farms reset their dates, ticket prices and hours every autumn, so read the 2026 Season column as good for 2026 only.