Skinny Bones Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

Skinny Bones Pumpkin Patch, in the Omaha area, is built around a pick-your-own patch plus a multi-acre corn maze with eight punch stations and a master-maze prize. Tornado Alley, built inside a grain bin, is billed as the nation's tallest indoor tornado simulator. Frankenslide drops riders down 60 feet of darkness, and Pumpkin Plunge sends tubes down 150-foot slides. A corn pool takes 800 bushels to fill. The House of Mystery is a slanted retired machine shop tied to a legend that a tornado hit the farm in 1912 and never left. Haley Boo's Petting Zoo holds ducks, chickens, a turkey, goats, donkeys, and sheep.

Our take: Use a Friday night if you want flashlights in the maze, and a Saturday night if you want the after-dark version with no lights allowed.