Apple picking at Sky Top Orchard, an easy Charlotte day trip

Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC is the perfect place to go apple picking with kids in the fall. It’s an easy Charlotte day trip, too. Don’t miss their apple cider donuts and head out early if you want to get the honey crisp apples!

You know what makes a new town feel like home? Discovering you have built traditions that feel special and important.

This is our third fall in Charlotte, NC and every year since our move we have made a pilgrimage out to the mountain high Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC for a pick our own apple adventure.

Every year for the last 3 falls I have taken a photo of my girls in front of their annual apple and the “Honeycrisp” sign:

We partake of their heavenly apple cider donuts–hot and fresh out of the fryer–and their freshly pressed and chilled apple cider:

And we marvel at the mountain backdrop of this orchard:

As we filled our picking baskets to the brim, I was struck how normal it felt this year. This is what we do in the fall.

Check, check, and check.

No more guessing, no more wondering where to find things. This apple orchard is one of the spots where I’ve marked my girls’ growth from a 2 & 5 year old to a 4 & 7 year old.

My girls remembered the huge line for the donuts last year and remarked how going early this year meant no wait. They remembered that the bigger apple baskets are too heavy to carry when full and grabbed the smaller size instead. The Peanut remembered to pick the apples so that the stem stays in place to help them stay fresher longer.

Memories are being made, we’re not just going through the motions anymore. I’m not propping up babies near a basket of apples for a photo op, we’re doing it because come Thanksgiving morning we want a half gallon of Sky Top Orchard cider fresh out of our freezer to be filling their glasses at the table.

What to make with apples from Sky Top Orchard: 

• Our favorite apple crisp
• Slow cooker acorn squash with apples and craisins
• Cranberry apple crunch cobbler
• Roasted sausages, potatoes and apples

Just barely 2 hours outside of Charlotte, Sky Top Orchard is our favorite spot for picking apples. If you go you’ll find a cute playground with swings and slides and little playhouses, adorable fall decorations, a quaint shop where you can buy bagged apples, cider by the gallons for taking home, and every kind of apple treat you can imagine.

The orchard is on a mountain top so walking from tree to tree can get a little hilly. Be sure everyone is wearing comfy shoes for hiking. They have wagons on site for borrowing if you want to haul even more baskets than you can carry.

Just promise me you won’t skip the donuts.

Oh by the way! If you are a fellow Charlotte resident, I’d love if you’d stop by Facebook to say hi. I’ll be sharing more local fun in the coming months you won’t want to miss! Come join the conversation here.

You can find Sky Top Orchard online here:

For directions to the orchard, start here.

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