Students reflect on their cozy, spooky and fun plans for this season
By AMBER WARNKE — features@theaggie.org
As autumn enters full swing, many students have taken advantage of the season to involve themselves in a variety of fall-themed activities in and around Davis. Cooling temperatures allow for students to spend more time outside, and the changing color of leaves is enough to make anyone get in the mood to wander through a hay maze or visit a cozy farm.
Perhaps the most accessible fall activity to UC Davis students is leaf peeping, the recreational activity of observing the leaves as they change color in the fall.
This can be done on the way to campus, as noted by David Katrikh, a second-year marine and coastal science major.
“You can walk down Russell, and there’s like a line of trees,” Katrikh said. “And, when the sun hits it just right […] during fall, it illuminates all the different colors in the leaves. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Another excellent location for leaf peeping on campus is at the Arboretum, which boasts the vibrant yellow colors of Ginkgo biloba trees in the fall. The area also includes Chinese pistache trees, with vivid rust orange leaves, and Formosan flame trees, which bloom with deep red fruits.
Students can continue to visit these trees throughout the fall season, as their colors will peak in November. If Aggies want to look into specific tree types, they can use the Campus Planning Public Tree Database to identify specific tree types as they go leaf peeping in between classes.
Off-campus, students can visit the pumpkin patch and animal barn at Impossible Acres in West Davis. For only four dollars, students can visit goats, sheep, donkeys, calves, piglets, bunnies, kittens, chicks, ducklings and geese.
From there, less than a 10-minute drive away is Bobby Dazzler’s Pumpkin Patch in Woodland. In addition to hosting a pumpkin patch and free corn kernel bath, Bobby Dazzler’s allows customers to ride in the “cow train,” a tractor that tugs a trail of personal cow vehicles behind it on a joyous Halloween ride.
A little further away in Dixon is perhaps the most well-known seasonal attraction for Aggies, which won the Guinness World Record in 2014 for being the largest corn maze. Cool Patch Pumpkins, a 10- to 20-minute drive from Davis, features a 40-acre corn maze with six bridges.
Warren Frasenyak, a first-year science and technology studies major, shared his excitement to go to the corn maze with his friends this fall.
“I’m excited to go to my first corn maze, see what it’s like and hopefully not get lost,” Frasenyak said. “If I do get lost, [I will] at least have some fun along the way.”
Aggies who share worries about not being able to find a way out, but still hope to traverse the maze, can access a free map of the maze when they buy their tickets. Additionally, the maze has markers along the way, telling frolicers their coordinates within it.
However, for Aggies who want a more spooky fall activity, Sacramento hosts several horror-themed exhibits, including Corbett’s House of Horror. This attraction has several options for horror activities, including zombie paintball, a creepy scarecrow cornfield and medical and clown-themed haunted houses. Similarly, the Sacramento Scream Park has multiple haunted house options, with sanitarium, amusement park, school and swamp themes.
Katrikh hopes to have time to check out these attractions this month, as he is an avid lover of the horror genre.
“I like feeling scared, but knowing that nothing’s actually gonna happen,” Katrikh said. “It’s a fun thing to do with other people. You’re all collectively scared, and you know the danger isn’t real, but you have a fear response and you bond with the people around you. That’s what I like about it the most.”
Frasenyak has a similar perspective, having worked in two haunted houses before college.
“I got to pop out of a corner and be a vampire,” Frasenyak said. “It was fun seeing everyone have fun.”
For a tamer outing, students can drive a little further from Davis to Apple Hill in Placerville, a series of orchards selling a variety of apple products. Some orchards even allow guests to pick their own apples.
Monica Willsey, a 2023 Davis alum with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations, grew up going to Apple Hill every year.
“My earliest memory was actually sleeping in a hammock that was set up at one of the orchards,” Willsey said.
As Willsey has grown up, her favorite part of Apple Hill is the community it has allowed her to foster.
“I not only get to enjoy myself, but I get to share the experience with my friends, and that makes it even more fun,” Willsey said.
Willsey recommended students take Apple Hill as an opportunity to support small businesses while trying out local treats, as well as enjoying the rural scenery of the area. Students looking to enjoy leaf peeping this fall can keep Apple Hill in mind as they consider nearby locations for their hobby.
Whether students’ fall activities lead them to take up leaf peeping and apple picking, wandering corn mazes, visiting farms or visiting spooky haunted houses filled with monsters and gore, Aggies can enjoy the season through many different ways. Regardless of our preferred methods for celebrating the fall, Davis residents and students can enjoy the countless opportunities this season offers to spend time in the community and appreciate the outdoors.
Written by: Amber Warnke — features@theaggie.org
