A working Lee County farm whose corn maze and hayride run Friday to Sunday only - on October weekdays you can come 9am to 6pm but for the pumpkin patch alone, which is the misunderstanding that spoils visits here.
Gross Farms does not list corn maze or admission prices on its home page. Group and birthday-party reservations are handled separately.
The most important sentence in this record is easy to skim past. On October weekdays, Monday through Friday, the farm is open 9am to 6pm for the pumpkin patch only. The maze and the other attractions are not running.
That is not a small distinction. The corn maze is the reason most people drive to Sanford, and a listing showing weekday opening hours reads, to almost everybody, as the farm being open. It is not - it is the field being open. If you have booked a day off in the middle of the week to take your children to a corn maze, this is the farm that will disappoint you.
Saturday is the real day. Eleven in the morning to eight at night is a nine-hour window, and it is the only one that lets you spread a visit out: the maze in the afternoon, the hayride, a look at the produce barn, and still be finishing as the light goes.
Sunday is a shorter, tamer version at 11am to 5pm, which suits families with younger children who were never going to stay until dark anyway.
Friday, 4pm to 8pm, is the interesting one, and it comes with a condition - October only. The season opens on September 26, so the two late-September days are a Saturday and a Sunday, and anyone planning a Friday evening in that first week has misread the calendar.
A lot of farms that stay open past sunset are selling a scare. Nothing in this record suggests that. What is on offer is a large cut corn maze on a working farm that happens to be open until 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays, which is a much better proposition for a family with a ten-year-old than a haunted trail is.
Bring a light. The record does not describe the maze as lit, and a corn maze in the dark without a torch is a genuinely disorienting experience rather than a fun one. It also means clothing: central North Carolina drops a lot of degrees after sunset in October, and a field with no windbreak feels colder than the forecast.
There is no published price for anything here. Not the maze, not admission, not the pumpkins. For a farm whose main attraction is a substantial ticketed maze, that is an unusual gap, and it means a family cannot compare Gross Farms against alternatives without picking up the phone.
Two questions are worth asking on that call. What does a weekend visit cost per person, and is there a different, lower charge for an October weekday when only the patch is open. The second one has an obvious right answer from a customer’s point of view and the record simply does not tell us.
Sanford is south-west of the Triangle and well outside the commuter ring, which is the quiet advantage. Farms within twenty minutes of Raleigh carry the whole metro on an October Saturday; this one does not, and a visit here on the same afternoon will feel less like a queue.
The trade is drive time, and one practical consequence of it: with no price published and no confirmation of conditions, a long drive out is a bigger bet than a short one. The phone number is the fix. Use it before you go.
September 26 to November 1, 2026. Saturday is the long day at 11am to 8pm and the only one that supports an evening maze; Sunday runs 11am to 5pm; and Friday 4pm to 8pm exists in October only, not in the last week of September. On October weekdays the pumpkin patch alone is open 9am to 6pm. If you want the full farm - maze, hayride, patch - Saturday is the day that gives you the most room, and an early-afternoon arrival leaves time for the maze without racing the light.
Two to three hours for a weekend visit with the maze and hayride included. A weekday pumpkin-only trip is forty-five minutes.
Sanford sits south-west of the Triangle, far enough out that it does not carry the weekend load a Raleigh-adjacent farm does. The pinch points are the October Saturdays, particularly the late afternoon when the day crowd and the evening maze crowd overlap. Sunday, closing at 5pm, is the shorter and generally calmer weekend option.
Not published. This is a working farm in Lee County, so expect field or gravel parking and soft ground for several days after autumn rain - a real consideration in late September and early October, when tropical systems still reach central North Carolina.
Nothing published. A cut corn maze is furrowed dirt and stalk stubble, a hayride involves a step up onto a wagon, and a pick-your-own field is uneven. The produce barn is likely to be the most manageable part of the site. Call 919-498-6727 if this affects your group.
You can only visit on a weekday and you want the maze. Monday to Friday in October the pumpkin patch is open but the maze and other attractions are not running. Skip a late-September Friday too, because the Friday evening session only starts in October.
Sanford is in Lee County, roughly between the Triangle and the Sandhills, which makes it a natural stop for anyone travelling US 1 rather than a quick trip from Raleigh. The on-site produce barn means the visit can double as a shopping stop.
No. The maze and hayride run Friday to Sunday, with the Friday session existing in October only. On October weekdays, Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, the pumpkin patch is open but the other attractions are not.
No price is published on the farm's site, so we could not record one. Group and birthday-party bookings are handled separately. Call ahead if budget matters.
Saturday 11am to 8pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm, across a September 26 to November 1, 2026 season. Fridays are 4pm to 8pm in October only.
Saturday and October Friday evenings run to 8pm, which is after sunset for most of the season, so an evening maze is possible on those days. The farm does not describe a separate lit or haunted night maze, so bring your own light and check at the gate.
September 26 – November 1, 2026. Friday-Sunday, plus weekdays in October for the pumpkin patch only. Hours: Fridays (October only) 4:00pm-8:00pm; Saturdays 11:00am-8:00pm; Sundays 11:00am-5:00pm; pumpkin patch only Monday-Friday in October 9:00am-6:00pm.
Admission pricing was not published when we last checked. Gross Farms does not list corn maze or admission prices on its home page. Group and birthday-party reservations are handled separately.
1606 Pickett Road, Sanford, NC 27332, in Lee County. It is one of 5 patches we track in Research Triangle.
We track 5 patches in Research Triangle, 1 of which are free to walk into. The farm has not published a gate price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
Its season runs about 37 days against a regional average of 43, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
What sets it apart locally: it has u-pick fields, which most Research Triangle patches on our list do not.
There are 8 other patches we track in Lee County. All Research Triangle patches →
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
grossfarms.com
Checked August 2026.