One of the only reviews I've bumped up to a full star from a half.
A 4.5-5 stars!
TL;DR: This is a great choice orchard for u-pick! It includes a number of things, is well organized, and isn't as crazy busy as the other locations down the road on the east side. Lots of people complain about a hill climb, but you don't have to do this if you are okay with picking apples near the tractor drop off; Some variations are up the hill, but certainly not all.
ARRIVAL: We arrived on Saturday around 1130a the first weekend of October. We got one of the last parking spaces inside and a few larger trucks were already parked along the road. We didn't see many cars leaving, so it seemed like the first heap of people were still there.
AMBIANCE: Great fall vibes and a number of couples and friends, there were a large number of groups with kids as expected, but I would say it wasn't even MOSTLY kids. Sunflower patch, flower patches, pumpkins, and of course, lots of apples at the orchard!
SERVICE: Everybody was genuinely friendly and the whole experience was very well organized.
ADMISSION: We paid about $11/person which includes the wagon ride, an apple, apple cider donut, small cup of apple cider, and 3 flowers per person.
EXPERIENCE: After parking, proceed to the u-pick shed on the lower part of the hill and fill out a liability form, decide how many apples you'd want to get and in what type of receptacle (peck = plastic bag?, basket = cute basket). We got a 1/4 peck which ended up fitting about 7 apples. The wait for the tractor ride felt really long, but they did a good job of having tractors coming back and forth and loading/unloading without delay; Some people gave up and opted to walk, but i'm glad we didn't after seeing the walking distance and having fun on my first tractor wagon ride! We took the smaller tractor wagon up. When you get up to the front, a girl gave us a good overview of what apples were available, how to tell they're good, how to pick them. There was a simple hand-drawn map that I referred to, but it's really...basic and has little reference points but i felt like that gave it all the more of a family-owned vibe! We did the hike up the hill for pink ladys, hiked back down and up for mutsus (which were all gone that day), and ended up finding the most delicious Pritchett golden apples in the area just next to the shed. We spent about an hour up in the orchards but you can take as much time as you want. They have cows and allow you to feed and pet them and tire swings and a couple games/structures for kids to play on. The tractor ride back was a much shorter wait and this time we got on the larger wagon!! We got back and walked up the path where donuts and cider were waiting for us (but not sitting out by any means and there were two ladies there serving). Since we were going to visit a couple more places after, we didn't stop inside the store which was a bit smaller in sqft than the others we saw.
CLEANLINESS: I didn't use the bathroom or anything there, but the wagon, orchard in general, the donut/cider serving station and parking lot were all well maintained and clean. The driveway in/out of the orchard wasn't even extremely dusty (but a little dust gets kicked up during the tractor ride in case you're sensitive)
OVERALL: We went to Reece's cider co after this and I was glad to have come to Red Apple Barn for our apple picking instead. Reece's was extremely busy, tons of kids, parking was really full and off a busy area of the road. I enjoyed the calmer environment and smaller crowd here and loved that the admission included a bit of everything (even if we forgot to pick flowers! oops!) so it served as a great one stop shop. Unfortunately I have to come back because I hate apples but have found the Prichett Golden that is fantastic and their own variety. Can't wait to return next year! read more