Susan M.
Yelp
Tons of fruit-laden apple trees, friendly staff, delicious food, clean facilities, and so many fun activities.
I just had a really great experience this past weekend at this orchard. You take a wagon ride to the orchard, which has seemingly infinite rows of trees. The gala apple trees have a lot fruit hanging really low, so it's really easy for the kids to pick. We were told that there was some damage to the apples due to hail (which happened at every orchard in Illinois) but there were still a lot of great-looking apples.
But there's a LOT more than just apple trees. There's a huge corn maze, a kid's zip line area, pedal cart racing, magic shows, target shooting with "apple" cannons, "mining" for gems, rubber ducky races, pony rides, a petting zoo - the list goes on and on! I think they have about 30 different areas of activities. You can spend an entire day here with the kids for fun memories other than just apple-picking. Considering how much you can do here, the price seems like a bargain.
The food here was also exceptional for a "theme park" type of venue. I was really surprised by the quality of the food - I heard they upgraded the menu this year. We had the French fries (a must try - so crispy and tasty!), the pulled pork sandwich, pot roast pile-up, Mediterranean wrap, and Mexican corn. (Note that the Mexican corn isn't on the cob.) Apple cider donuts and the apple cider slushies seem to be "must-haves" here. People were buying donuts by the dozens. You can see them making them in the windows of the the general store.
The staff was also very friendly. I would definitely return to this place with more friends and would come more than once a season considering how much there is to do here.