Giant Human Maze

Lose Yourself
In A Giant Human Maze

By Gretchen Bergen

When hiking or mountain biking, most people avoid getting lost by following marked trails and consulting a map or GPS device. So it’s fun to intentionally lose yourself in the giant maze at Winter Park Resort where the challenge is to find your way out as quickly as possible. The 5,000-square-foot giant maze has been entertaining people for years. In fact, this was the first of many human mazes Greg Gallavan would eventually build all over the country and even in Spain.

Today Winter Park-based A’maze Ventures, Inc. is the largest operator of mazes in North America. The company designs and sells giant mazes for the amusement and family entertainment industry. Gallavan also operates a maze at Breckenridge and a family fun center complete with a maze, miniature golf and bumper cars at Steamboat Springs.

“Winter Park is kind of my beta site for the latest and greatest maze,” Gallavan says. It’s also his busiest. About 30,000 people each season wander the pathways. As individuals or teams enter the maze, the starting time is punched on their maze passport. Inside, they must locate four checkpoints, obtain a stamp at each checkpoint, and then exit the maze. Complete the maze in 10 minutes and win a prize.

Gallavan’s interest in losing people all started with a small hamburger stand at Winter Park in 1988. The indoor family fun center at Winter Park Resort included a small maze, which was extremely popular. Using his experience in the resort and recreation industry together with his carpentry and building skills, Gallavan began developing large outdoor mazes. He opened his first outdoor maze in June 1990 – Amaze’n Breckenridge,
Colorado’s largest outdoor human maze at 10,000 square feet. Since then he has built around 30 mazes at family fun centers, ski areas, amusement parks and other locations across the country.

Recently, Gallavan was busy installing four new mazes – one at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument near Kearney, Neb. and others in Eddyvile, Ky., Lancaster, Pa., and Cicero, N.Y. And as mazes continue to become more popular, Gallavan doesn’t foresee business slowing anytime soon. Corn mazes have been sprouting up all over the country and all types of mazes recently have appeared on popular reality TV shows. Recently one of Gallavan’s mazes — the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze in Fort Worth, Texas — was featured in the grand finale of the Amazing Race.

Most of all, Gallavan says, mazes are a great activity families and groups can enjoy together. “People enjoy losing themselves. And parents like losing their kids even better.”

Visit Amaze’n Winter Park at Winter Park Resort. Adults/$8. Kids/$6. Children five-and-under are free.