Best time to go: 09/17 - 11/20
$15 – $20pp (weekends) / $7pp (weekdays) – $80 for a family of four can seem expensive for a day at the farm, but Cox does it right. With mountains of gigantic slides, music and a hefty dose of camp, it’s an excellent place to spend a day with the kids. Cox Farms is open for fun from mid-September til Thanksgiving.
Unlike Great Country Farms, Cox Farms does not have much in the way of shade, so it’s best to come in October, after the DMV has cooled off a bit.
The fall festival also features a number of bands (mostly traditional country music) and plenty of places to lose your kids. You’ll also walk away with ideas for entertaining your kids at home. I’m partial to the ‘penny pit’, which advertises hidden coins under a pile of hay. Of course, it only works if you throw pennies in now and then. Hours of fun!
By far the best part of Cox is the kitsch. Although they are best known for the full-scale model of Stonehenge (Foam-henge), I find the creepy fairy tail forest far more entertaining. And, of course, there’s the corn maze of horror, complete with a haunted trailer, an Alice in Wonderland room and a crashed spaceship with actors playing aliens. It is truly bizarre.
The slides go on for acres, and there are other features that make Cox feel like a gigantic, agribusiness playground.
