Fall Leaf Maze
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Fall leaf mazes
A maple leaf with five lobes and a stem, and the solution on its own page.
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Fall Leaf Maze, Solution
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
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Four mazes, each a different size. Every one is a two-page PDF, the maze, then the solution on its own page.
Fall leaf maze, large print20 × 20 grid · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Fall leaf maze, everyday24 × 24 grid · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Fall leaf maze, longer27 × 27 grid · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Fall leaf maze, challenge30 × 30 grid · HardDownload PDF ↓Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.
The leaf is a maple: a top lobe, two side lobes angled upward, two smaller lobes low down, and a stem. A real maple leaf has dozens of small teeth along its edge, and a tooth smaller than one square of the grid simply vanishes, so the outline keeps the five broad lobes that do survive. They are enough, and the shape reads as a maple leaf from eighteen squares up.
Eighteen is also the smallest leaf the maker will carve. At sixteen squares the two lower lobes disappear and the leaf turns into a cross on a stick, so the four sheets here run 20, 24, 27 and 30 squares across. The leaf keeps 38 to 39 percent of each grid, from 152 squares on the Large print to 340 on the Challenge.
A leaf is a fall shape rather than a holiday one, so this is the sheet for September and October as much as for Thanksgiving week, and it pairs well with a nature walk, a leaf rubbing or a lesson on why leaves change color. The way in is the tip of the left lobe and the way out the tip of the right, so the route always crosses the leaf from side to side.
Every leaf has exactly one route and no loops, and the solution is the second page of each PDF. The maker on this page opens a leaf at eighteen squares and goes up to thirty, and New maze carves a different one each time.
Why the everyday leaf maze has the longest route
The Everyday leaf is the second smallest of the four sheets, 24 squares across, and it has by far the longest route: 144 squares, against 62 on the Large print, 110 on the Longer and 121 on the Challenge. On that sheet the route passes through 144 of the leaf's 222 squares, about two thirds of the whole leaf, and it visits every lobe on the way and dips into the stem as well.
With so much of the leaf on the route, the side branches are short. The Everyday passes 18 forks, more than any other leaf sheet, yet no wrong turn along the way runs longer than 11 squares. The one long branch is at the very end: from the last square, beside the way out, a branch of 24 squares runs back into the leaf with a path 18 deep. That makes the Everyday a long, steady sheet with few traps, the one to choose for a child who enjoys a long route but loses heart in a dead end.
Does the route climb into the top lobe of the maple leaf
Only on the Everyday, where it reaches the very top row of the leaf and uses 21 of the top lobe's 30 squares. On the Large print and the Longer it never enters the top lobe at all, and on the Challenge it touches just 4 of its 52 squares, so on three sheets out of four the tallest part of the leaf is a side trip, and a child who climbs toward its tip has gone the wrong way.
The two lower lobes are mostly side trips too. The Large print route touches 2 of their 10 squares and the Longer 1 of 22, while the Challenge takes in 9 of the 13 squares in the lower right lobe and none of the lower left. The stem is never on the route of the Large print or the Challenge. So a solver who keeps to the wide middle band of the leaf, between the two side lobes, is usually on the right track, and the Everyday is the sheet that breaks that rule.
Common questions
Why a maple leaf rather than an oak leaf?
Because its five pointed lobes survive being drawn in squares. An oak leaf’s lobes are shallow and close together, and a lobe less than a square or two deep turns into a ragged edge on a printed grid, the same reason the maple’s own small teeth are left out. The maple’s top and side lobes stay distinct from eighteen squares up.
Is the leaf maze for fall or for Thanksgiving?
Both. Nothing printed on the sheets names a holiday; each is headed with the shape and size, such as Fall Leaf Maze: Everyday, so it works from the first weeks of school to the end of November. For Thanksgiving itself, the turkey maze on this site is the more pointed choice.
Can the maker carve a leaf smaller than eighteen squares?
No. Eighteen is the smallest leaf it will draw, so choosing Easy on this page gives eighteen squares rather than the usual twelve. At sixteen the two lower lobes vanish and the side lobes stick straight out, which reads as a cross rather than a leaf.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.