Across much of the country, fall is the season of apple-picking, corn mazes, winery harvests and Halloween hauntings, luring day-trippers and weekenders to rural areas. But if summer is any guide, many fall festivities may require more planning this year to avoid the crowds.

While visitors may still launch a pumpkin from a catapult, pandemic restrictions will touch everything: Hay rides will now be socially distanced, and masked clowns will be poised to scare haunted house visitors from six feet away.

North Carolina Apple Festival celebrates the area’s fruit growers and has, in recent years, drawn some 250,000 attendees to town. This year, the September event was largely canceled, but area orchards remain busy.