"The maze! The maze! It's coming up!" That's what Gregory Stewart once heard a young child say as he was carrying stakes to start work on the annual Halloween maze in the back yard of his Ridgewood home.

Stewart, along with his wife, Nancy, and sons, Zachary and Tyler, has been designing and constructing the maze for 17 years, and every October, the maze attracts many people of all ages. "We get the biggest amount of people on Halloween, where anywhere between 300 and 600 people show up," Stewart says. "But that is not the best time to solve the maze because it's too crowded."

"Every year, we get excited for the maze," says Stewart's neighbor, 13-year-old Jessi Schlicht, who is the first to try the maze along with her twin sister, Amy.

Made up of 7-foot-tall stakes, twine, clear glass, one-way glass and a hay-covered floor, the maze is not an easy one to solve. In fact, it takes the average first-timer 50 minutes to get through. Stewart believes that is the reason the maze is always a big hit.

Stewart's 20-year-old son, Tyler, has actually designed the maze for the past six years.

"I admit, in the first couple of years, I helped him design it," Stewart says. "I looked over his shoulder and made changes and so forth, but I don't have to do that anymore. His mazes are so good just the way they are."

The Stewarts' maze would be considered a loops-and-traps maze, which means it is filled with one-way doors. Once someone goes through the doors, they cannot go back through them. If someone makes a wrong turn, they end up back at the entrance.

Going through the maze, people will encounter static and animatronic decorations as well as live creatures (which have included Stewart and his family, as well as others) whose job it is to scare people. Spider webs also decorate the maze, and different kinds of things will fall on people's necks at the right time to frighten them.

"It's all designed to scare you," Stewart says with a laugh. During the day, the maze has only animatronics and decorations, but at night the maze creatures come to life. With all the fun the maze offers, it is no wonder so many visitors return each year.

Best of all, Stewart doesn't charge admission. "I feel that I see the same kids come in day in and day out, and this is a really nice experience," Stewart says. "The purpose is to give the kids a great memory that they're going to remember for many years to come."

Located at 124 Sheridan Terrace, Ridgewood, the maze is open 3:30-9 p.m. weekdays and noon to 9 p.m. weekends from early October until Nov. 1.

PEEK-A-BOO The Stewarts' back yard Halloween attraction features static and animatronic decorations and live creatures meant to scare those who dare to enter the loops-and-traps maze.

SCARE TACTICS Visitors find their escape from the annual Halloween backyard maze, located at 124 Sheridan Terrace in Ridgewood, after navigating the twists and turns of frights inside.