By Scott Buehler, Southern Utah localFall, roughly mid-September through October
A corn maze, a pumpkin patch, and the whole fall lineup.
The corn maze is the anchor of the farm's fall, cut fresh each year into a new design and grown in a real field. Around it the farm runs a pumpkin patch, hayrides, a petting zoo, a small train and more, with the extras shifting year to year. The season usually opens in mid-September and runs through October; the farm's 2026 dates run September 18 through October 31.
It works because it is a real farm rather than a set built to look like one. The Staheli family has farmed this ground since the late 1800s, and the maze is grown in a real field on a farm that works the ground for a living. That honesty comes through, especially to anyone who grew up around agriculture and has been let down by the manufactured version elsewhere.
Fall is also simply the best time of year to be outdoors in this corner of the desert, so the timing is not an accident. Evenings in October are close to perfect, which is exactly why everyone else has the same idea.
October, select nights after dark
The Field of Screams, the farm's haunted side.
Once it is properly dark in October, part of the farm turns into the Field of Screams, a haunted attraction that runs on select nights. This is where I need to be direct with parents. It is not a mild seasonal thing with cardboard skeletons. It is built to frighten adults, with actors, elaborate sets and special effects, and a child who was delighted by the pumpkin patch at four in the afternoon can have a genuinely bad night at nine.
The farm runs it as its own event with its own ticket, separate from the daytime farm. It also offers a daylight walkthrough called the Lights On Tour, where you see the same sets with the actors and scares turned off, which is the version that suits young children, and the Staheli Witches events earlier in the evening skew silly rather than scary. Even so, every year somebody walks a small child into the wrong event by accident, so read which ticket you are buying.
If scary is your thing, the haunt has a real local following and sells out, so book early in the month before the peak weekend nights fill.
Two different events, one location. The daytime farm and the after dark Field of Screams are not the same experience, and they take separate tickets. Check which one you are buying and what time the farm switches over.
December, when the fields light up
Christmas at the farm, the December lights.
In December the same fields fill with Christmas lights, in a season the farm calls Christmas at the Farm, and it has grown into one of the larger holiday attractions in this part of the state. In recent seasons you have seen the lights from a wagon ride or by driving through, with the format set each year. Around them the farm adds a giant slide, holiday train rides, Santa and Mrs. Claus evenings, a gift shop in the old silo and warm food, and you can pick up a fresh cut Christmas tree on the way out.
There is also a live nativity on a few early December evenings, a free community event that draws well, and a holiday drone show on one set night, which is a genuinely modern addition to a very old fashioned outing. Dates for all of it are announced each year, so plan around the farm's calendar rather than guessing.
This is the one I would tell a new resident to do in their first December. It is not sophisticated. It is a field full of lights in a warm desert valley in the middle of winter, and it is a decent snapshot of what the holidays feel like in a town where nobody is shoveling anything.
A field full of lights in a warm desert valley in the middle of winter, and nobody is shoveling anything.
Between the big seasons
A working farm, with more on the calendar than it used to have.
The farm does not sit idle between the maze and the lights anymore. It is a working farm first, and the family has grown crops and raised cattle on this ground since the late 1800s; the farm dates its own story to 1892. Today it sells its own beef directly, rents community garden boxes through the growing season, and hosts weddings, field trips and private events on the grounds.
The public calendar has widened, too. Where this farm used to run just the fall maze and the December lights, it now lists events in every season, with lighter spring and summer outings and the big crowds back in the fall. The honest way to hold it is that the farm is not open every day, hours follow whichever season is running, and you check the calendar rather than assume.
It also sits in the middle of the fastest changing part of Washington City. Washington Fields was farmland within living memory and is now where much of the city's new construction is going in, which makes a working farm of this size in the middle of it a genuinely interesting thing to have as a neighbor. A lot of the new rooftops nearby are built on ground that used to look exactly like this.
Whether that continues is not something I can promise anybody, and I would be careful of anyone who does. What I can say is that it is there now, it is a real part of how this city sees itself, and the corn maze has been an annual fixture for a long time.
The details
Timing, tickets, and what to wear
How to plan a visit without spending it in line.
The single best piece of advice about this place is timing. Weekend evenings in peak October and the middle two weeks of December are the busiest hours the farm sees, and the difference between a Friday at seven and a Tuesday at five is the difference between a line and a stroll.
Buy tickets online ahead of time for the nights you want, and check the farm's calendar before you drive, because the dates and the formats are set fresh each year. The lights have run as a drive through and as a wagon ride in recent seasons, the haunted attraction runs on select nights only, and the free nativity lands on a few specific early December evenings. None of it is safe to assume from last year.
Dress for real desert temperatures after sundown. It surprises people every year. A fall or December evening in Washington Fields can drop well below the daytime high, and there is no shelter out in a field.
Before you go
- Check the farm's calendar first. Dates, prices and which attractions run change year to year, and a wasted trip to Washington Fields is a small thing but an avoidable one.
- It is a farm, so the ground is uneven and dusty or muddy depending on the season. Closed shoes over sandals, and a stroller with real wheels if you are bringing one.
- Leave pets at home. The farm does not allow them on the property, with service animals the only exception.
- Washington Fields is where much of the city's new construction is going in. If you are looking at homes out here, the farm is a landmark worth orienting yourself around.