Maze of the Week #2 - Monument Valley Maze

January 10, 2022

This week I am featuring the famous Monument Valley landscape for a maze. You’ve seen it Western movies and tv shows for decades. Today I will also share 3 different versions of the maze (like comic book alternative covers). We have a black and white version, a color version, and a color version with clouds. All are the same maze, made with a free drawn construction. Which do you prefer ?

Some information about Monument Valley

The large sandstone buttes are near the Utah Arizona border on the Navajo Nation Reservation and is part of the Colorado plateau. Wikipedia is my go-to for information. If you want to visit, the admission is very inexpensive as is the nearby campsite and you can even book a tour with a Navajo Guide ! It can best be described as majestic.

You can find many videos about Monument Valley online but this short one from National Geographic is my favorite. The soil color is so vibrant and changes with the movement of the sun during the day.

And before we get to the mazes let’s take a look at what the subject matter looks like with a photo courtesy of Pixabay and pexels.com. This photo shows a larger landscape than what I focused on which is the butte on the left.

Let’s look at the 3 maze options:

My first version of the maze is a simple black white version.

While in this version #2 I add in the vibrant color the region is known for, while adding the landscape to the butte. I was also able to add some darker colors for the places in the shadows. I opted against adding contours to the landscape.

And in our final version we get a more defined sky that includes some clouds. For me, this is the preferred version.

Monument Valley Maze full color version — Monument Valley Maze

I hope you enjoy the mazes.

You can find downloads of the maze on the homepage.

Coming next week:

Stop back on January 17th for our first building maze of the year. A maze of a museum.

Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 14 - The Largest Arrow Maze in the World

January 6, 2022

The final portion of our 14 Part Series - The Largest Arrow Maze in the World (I think).

Here is an overview of what we covered in the 14 part series:

Arrow Maze Construction and Design:

Arrow Maze Components:

Part 5 - Regular Arrows

Part 6 - Double Arrows

Extreme Arrow Maze examples:

Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 14 - The Largest Arrow Maze in the World (I think)

How big is it ?

Well in terms of if you were going to print it, it is formatted at 31 inches by 61 inches.
In terms of grids, it is sized at 45 x 90, although there are less than 4,050 grid spaces because of the use of some long arrows !
You COULD print it, but it is best opened on a device and zoomed in on to solve.

Additional information:

There are no “filler” grids…all grids in the maze are reachable
Because of the size of the maze there are 3 checkpoints along the way that will help guide you towards a solve.
Between the second and third checkpoints there are NO decision arrows, only regular arrows…!
There are no dead ends

If you attempt this maze, do me a favor, time yourself. Send me a note with your time (or if you give up after a certain amount of time).

Hints and solution coming in future posts….

download mega arrow maze

Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 13 Kitchen Sink

January 4, 2022

I am back to bring you the final 2 sections of my Arrow Maze Case Study. And these two sections are all about giving you some interesting mazes to solve. If you enjoy Arrow Mazes or just challenging mazes these will be posts you enjoy. Today I will give you a few examples of what I call Kitchen Sink Arrow Mazes. A Kitchen Sink Arrow Maze uses a large variety of of different maze components to create a challenging maze.

Here is an overview of what we will be covering in the 14 part series:

Arrow Maze Construction and Design:

Arrow Maze Components:

Part 5 - Regular Arrows

Part 6 - Double Arrows

Extreme Arrow Maze examples:

Arrow Maze Design Case Study - Part 13 - Kitchen Sink

This post is all about kitchen sink examples. Our first example includes a START GOAL, Double Arrows, and Warps,

Our second kitchen sink example includes Double Arrows, Warps, Return to Starts, and an All Ways Arrow.

Kitchen Sink #3 features Double Arrows, Warps, and Long Arrows.

My final example features Return to Start, All Ways, Double Arrows and a Slide Arrow.

Each of these mazes mixed a few different components to create a kitchen sink maze. You may have noticed that these mazes all include numbers on them…because these all come from an upcoming book. These are all examples of the type of mazes that I include in my books on Amazon.

In the Final portion of this series, Part 14 I will present The Largest Arrow Maze in the World (I think)

Maze of the Week #1 - Horseshoe Bend Maze, Arizona

January 1, 2022

Welcome to our first maze of the year ! We start off with a landscape maze featuring Horseshoe Bend near Page, Arizona. This is a full color maze (using only 6 colors) and uses a draw and cut maze construction. It is not a typical maze to solve because of the use of the natural shape of the stones which create the walls, but I think you will enjoy it.

Some information about Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is a large bend in the Colorado River a few miles from the town of Page, Arizona. From a geological standpoint it is an entrenched meander. If you want to learn more about the bend I suggest you check out the Wikipedia page. If you are more interested in visiting the bend, you have options to fly it, hike it and raft it. You also have the opportunity to visit Antelope Canyon which is just 7 miles away ! Seems like a nice vacation.

If you like videos here is one with some great travel information about Horseshoe Bend that I recommend,

Let’s take a look at what exactly I am mazing with an amazing photo of the subject courtesy of Francesco Ungaro, who you can follow on Instagram @ _francesco_ungaro_. And now we can confirm that the bend does indeed look like a horseshoe !